A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm
by ShadowVulpix
Summary: A pair of foxes jump worlds, because why not? One tiny fox on a constant sugar rush, and the elder who has to deal with her messes. This will be both fun and confusing, depending on where you stand. Somehow more serious than originally intended, this is what happens when you give a bored author a hypothetical question. Mix of PMD and Anime rules, with some adjustments for reality.
1. Chapter 1

**This fic is almost a completely crack snippet collection, created due to a hypothetical question posed in a Discord I'm in, while I was very bored and chatting to some other people in there, who were mildly bored and thought this would be funny, so here we are! Enjoy yourselves, folks.**

* * *

 **A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 1.**

 **Arrival.**

* * *

A hoop appeared in mid-air, purple mist rippling within. A small red and white fox jumped out, looking around with intrigue in its brown eyes, while a taller white fox followed it, looking mildly exasperated and amused in equal doses.

"This looks cool!" The little fox said, in a feminine voice. "Thanks, Hoopla!"

" _Hoopa_ , Shadow." The elder one groaned. "Hoopa."

"Hoopla, Hoopa, it's the same thing. He doesn't mind." Shadow grinned as the ring-portal closed. The little purple scarf around her neck fluttered slightly along her back as she began running around in circles, desperate to sniff at everything. "This is _really cool_ , though, Eon! Really cool!"

"You've said, Shadow." Eon sighed, twitching his tails. Little blue spots shimmered at the end as he began moving after her. "Now, what do you want to do?"

"Dunno." She said, crouching. Making a careful leap, she landed on top of a nearby dumpster, using it as a vantage point to look around. "Whadda you want?"

Eon sighed again. _This'll be a long trip._ With some careful movements of his own, the Ninetales ended up next to the young Vulpix, looking about them himself. "We should probably just look around this city we're in first."

"Alright!" Making another jump, she found herself caught in mid-air by a pink glow.

"Shadow." Eon sighed again. "Illusions, remember?"

"Oops." She blushed slightly. "Sorry." Waving his tails, the pair of vulpines rippled, replaced by a girl in a dress and leggings, and a boy with jeans and a t-shirt. With a frown, Shadow focused her own budding powers, making a hat and dropping it on her head. "Now c'mon! I wanna see what's going on here!"

"Just don't get lost, Shadow." The older fox said, as the younger ran off through an alleyway. "Silly kit…"

* * *

"Ooh!" Shadow perked up slightly. "I think there's something happening over there!"

"Where?" Eon looked sideways at her, glad she'd finally slowed down. _It's like she's on a permanent sugar rush…_

"Thataway, I think." She hummed, pointing with one hand in the vague direction of a slum. "I can feel it." Nodding, Eon guided the female towards another alley, and the illusion of two humans shattered.

"Stay still." He told her, waving his tails again. Light shimmered along both their furs for a moment, then the fox coughed. "Invisible now. Got it down a bit ago."

"Sweet!" The Vulpix grinned widely. "C'mon, I wanna go see what I'm feeling!" The smaller fox ran ahead, jumping lithely over bins in the way, while the larger evolved form made his way along more carefully and slowly, sometimes landing on the bins as he went over them.

The little fox's nose twitched, and Eon frowned. "Feels like fire."

"Yeah!" She agreed. "That's what I thought, but I wasn't too sure."

"'s fire." The Ninetales nodded. "Good job, pix."

"Thanks!" For a moment, she was happy to sit there and absorb the praise, then she frowned. "Should we go try and help? Someone might get hurt." Eon smiled at her.

"Be careful, Shadow." He told her. "Don't get hurt."

"M'kay!" She bounced quickly off and out of the alleyway, then froze and stared. "Whoa. Bugs."

"Hm?" Eon made his way over to her, peering over her head. "Hm. That's a lotta bugs."

"Should we burn them?" Shadow asked, twisting her head. "They're stinging at the fire dragon." She frowned further, her scarf rippling. "Is it a Charizard?"

"No." He replied. "Not a Charizard. They're not around here, remember." The Ninetales thought for a moment, then sniffed. "Think there's more people here."

"Oh!" Shadow perked up. "I'll go ask them what's happening!"

"Shadow-!" Eon called, feeling the invisibility break as she scrambled up a wall with her claws. "Oh, for…" He groaned.

* * *

"Bug girl's not doing too well." Alec commented. "Think we should help?"

"She is defending us, from what Tattletale said." Brian nodded. "Bitch, get your dogs-"

"Hi!"

"Ready?" He trailed off, all four of them whirling around to face the new arrival-

"What?" Lisa said.

"Hi?" The small red fox said again, a little more unsurely. She pawed at her purple scarf. "You can understand me, right? Hoopla said you would, but he's tricky."

"No, we understand you." Brian answered, apparently automatically, while the others gaped.

"Oh, good!" She grinned widely. "So, hi! Mind telling me what's going on down there?" Lisa blinked.

 _Is a Vulpix._

 _Came from elsewhere._

 _Hoopla out-of-context, unknown._

 _Hoopla likely a nickname; tone and inflection._

 _'Hoopla' brought her here._

 _Curious; saw fight below, wants to help._

 _Doesn't want to join in without knowing what's happening._

 _Vulpix-_

Lisa winced as her power errored out on her.

"Bug girl down there picked a fight with Lung," Alec told her, waving towards the ground. "No idea why, and she's not doing too hot."

"Why not?" The Vulpix asked. "There's plenty of fire down there- oh, that was a pun, wasn't it?" Her tone suddenly showed understanding. "I see. My friend does a _lot_ of those." The red fox pattered over to them, the Undersiders drawing back as she did, to look over the edge. "So, the Charizard down there's a bad guy?"

"Yes?" Brian tried, sounding confused.

 _Charizard is another creature like her._

 _She knows some, is familiar with it._

 _Charizard-_

Again, Lisa's power cut out, and the Vulpix nodded.

"Alright, good." Taking the end of her scarf in her mouth, she pulled, undoing it, then throwing it towards Lisa in a little pink grip. The Thinker automatically caught it, and the vulpine creature crouched. "Hold onto that for me, please? It's kinda important to me." Absently, Lisa nodded, and she grinned, widely and fanged-ly, in response. "Nice." A jump later, and the female fox was on the ground between Lung and the new Cape, six tails billowing out behind her. "Hey, Charizard guy!"

The audacity of the shout, along with the surprise of a two-foot tall fox appearing from the rooftops and yelling at him, made Lung pause, incredulous, while the bug girl just froze. "Hi! Please stop being mean to Ms Bug Lady, for me? It's not very nice to try and set someone on fire, even if they'll get better after it." The innocence and childishness of the tone made Lisa gape.

Lung growled out something unintelligible, making the Vulpix cock her head. "Sorry, Mr Charizard guy, but I didn't understand that. Which is weird, since I _should_ understand you even if most the human-people don't." A long, drawn-out sigh made Lisa look automatically to the side, completely out of both awe and confusion from the ongoing situation, and watch the three and a half feet tall white-grey fox join them at the edge of the roof.

"Pix, he's not a Charizard." The male called down, making them all look towards him. "You won't understand him anyway."

"Ooooh…" The Vulpix said slowly. "That makes sense. Alright. Hey, Ms Bug Lady?" She continued, turning to the new Cape. "Could you get away from here a bit, please? I don't want you to get hurt."

"Just a minute." Flexing his tails, the new arrival overrode whatever the insect controller was about to say, his eyes glowing the same light pink the scarf had. The same glow surrounded the Cape, lifting her slowly into the air. She squeaked, then went perfectly still as they all watched her float over to the rooftop, being placed gently next to them. "There we go."

"Who _are_ you?" Lisa finally asked, breaking through her confused daze.

"Hm? Oh, sorry. Eon, and the little vixen is Shadow." He greeted them, offering her a paw like a dog would. The feeling of unreality returning, she shook it, and he grinned. "Sorry about her, she's enthusiastic." The dry tone made her chuckle, and the new Cape did the same, before wincing. "You ok?"

"Just a few burns." She shrugged slightly. "I'll be fine." Eon looked at her sceptically, then looked back at a crash from the group.

Shadow landed lightly a few feet from a thrown dumpster, and turned her head to look at it. "Um, I don't think that's allowed, Mr Dragon Guy. I don't _think_ that's a move, anyway." She cocked her head again. "Then again, I think Hoopla-"

" _Hoopa!_ " Eon shouted, in the tone of someone who didn't know why they were bothering.

Lisa knew it quite well, after dealing with Alec for over a year.

"-Said you human types work on weird battle rules." Shadow continued, completely ignoring her companion. "So I guess it's ok." Lung roared, breathing fire across the little fox. Some of the Undersiders gasped in shock, and the bugs around the area buzzed violently, until the red flames died down.

"Hey!" Shadow yelled. "That's a bit mean. Anyway, thanks for that. I guess I can forgive you for being rude if you're gonna boost me." She twitched. "Wonder if you have Flash Fire as well?" Lisa gaped, while Eon sighed again.

"Shadow, they don't have any of the same battle rules as we do." He told her. "No turns, no announcements, no Moves and no Abilities." While Lisa tried to figure out why she could here capitals on some of those words, Shadow looked up.

"That's a Move, though." She pointed. "Or is it just something that _looks_ like a Move?"

"It just looks like one, Shadow." Eon said. "And you don't need to do announcements here either."

"Really?" Lisa blinked, shaking her head to get rid of the growing headache- one that, for once, had very little to do with her powers.

 _I can't tell if it's the fire, or her eyes are_ actually _sparkling…_

"Really. We do it at home for courtesy." Eon shrugged, lying down in a ripple of white fur and long tails. "No need here."

" _Awesome_." The word rumbled across the area as Shadow turned back, crouching slightly as if she were about to lunge. "Alright, Mr Dragon Guy, let's go!"

* * *

 **So, yeah. This is going to be sporadic, but it's the first step into finding my motivation for writing Pokemon again. Everything kinda got put on hold because of school, then a couple of new fandoms- Worm among them- kinda kidnapped me and held my inspiration for ransom, so I was writing other stuff. Did some Worm omakes, and I'll be back to working on Pokemon again soon.**

 **Anyway, to explain, Eon is based off of someone else in the Discord, who kinda provided a lot of the inspiration, Shadow's my sort-of insert fox, and they came from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, with some anime rules mixed in. No move limit, they speak English, got to Earth Bet via Hoopa Shadow made friends with by accident, and will now proceed to run about and do stupid things to the Worm-verse. Yay!**

 **Have a good time, all!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 2.**

 **Versus Lung.**

* * *

Shadow grinned, watching the larger form carefully. Despite being so much younger than Eon was, she'd still done a fair bit of her own hunting during Dungeon runs, whether it was just exploration or Rescue missions, or even the rare missions where they ended up fighting some kind of boss- _like with Hoopla,_ she recalled with amusement, before shaking herself, _no, focus!_ \- so she was perfectly used to evaluating a target.

 _Right then. Big dragon, lots of times my size. Going to be difficult to fight head on, kinda like Dialga, but I'm smaller than him, so I can use that. Looks like a dragon, but he's on fire... wait, Eon said that they don't have the same rules here, so they probably don't have types either, right?_ She sniffed the air curiously. _Then again, he's on fire. Pretty sure he's immune to fire, then. Darn, that's bad, I do a lot of fire stuff. Least I'm not a one-trick foxy, so let's try some other things, eh?_ A vague plan in mind, she tilted her head carefully to the side, making her eyes go wide, and started her attack.

"Mr Dragon Guy, why're you being so _mean_?" She said, pouting. "I mean, _I_ haven't done anything to _you_ , so why'd you want to fight?" The face of the angry dragon softened slightly, so she powered up her attack. "And Ms Bug Lady didn't mean to hurt you too bad. You must have startled her. Makes sense; dragons are super cool and scary, and a dragon on fire is, like, double the coolness! But it is kinda scary too, I guess, especially to someone who can still be hurt by fire. But you really didn't need to try hurting her really bad, though. That'd be _mean_ , and she might've gotten _really hurt_." The dragon leaned down slightly, looking a lot calmer, and she started gently wagging her tails. "And I'm sorry if I've annoyed you at all, Mr Dragon Guy. I really didn't mean too, I promise! I just saw that Ms Bug Lady was in trouble, and I thought I should probably help her before someone got really hurt." The Cape grumbled something, so Shadow fired off a Captivate as well just to try and slow him down. "Are you alright now? Are _we_ ok now? I'm sorry..."

Quietly, Shadow thought she could hear Eon chuckling in the background, and almost smirked. _Still got it, ya old fox! Now, the final bit..._ Her fur rippled a little from a phantom breeze, and her eyes began to glow a gentle white.

"I mean, if we're ok, I guess you can stop being so mad now, right? You have somewhere else you can go to, yeah? So would you like to go there?" Looking her opponent in the eyes- _huh, has he shrunk a bit? Weird_ \- she focused her attack further. "Or I suppose you could just go to sleep now, and take a rest. No-one else is gonna cause trouble for you, and I'm not gonna get hurt if you do, so you can just take a rest. That makes sense, right?" She widened her eyes and waved her tails again, both Captivate and Tail Whip taking effect again. To muddle to waters a bit- _heh, waters with a fire guy. Bit, what's the word, contra-dic-tory?_ \- her eyes flickered again as she used Confuse Ray. He flinched slightly as the yellow dots hit him, his eyes going vague, and she used Hypnosis again. This time, the dragon wavered, the fire flickered as he swayed, then Shadow was forced to jump backwards as he fell forward, snoring before he impacted the ground. He bounced slightly, and she winced before realising the scales covering him had taken the impact so he didn't feel it. The fire around him began to disappear and he began shrinking slowly, making her nod. Turning as she heard a patter of claws on concrete, she grinned toothily at Eon, who was prowling his way slowly towards the two of them.

Stepping around the smaller fox, the white Ninetales inched forwards, sniffing at the dragonic prey. Nodding once towards her, Eon indicated away with his tail. Both of them padded away from the sleeping enemy, back towards the alley where they'd come in from, and Shadow raised an eyebrow to see the rest of the group from the rooftop leaning against various walls in differing states of shock and awe.

"Good job, little vixen." He nodded, seeming amused. "No damage at all, which is a plus." Shadow giggled.

"He wasn't that bad, once I knew what I was doing." She replied, keeping her voice calm and level so she didn't accidentally wake her former opponent. "Nowhere near as bad as Dialga was. And _nothing_ like that little mishap with Wigglytuff." Eon flinched harshly, unconsciously flicking his tails in an uncomfortable manner.

"Pix, _nothing_ is like that mishap with Wigglytuff. Not even _Arceus himself_ showing up would be like it." He said grumpily. She giggled, making him glare at her a little before lightening up. "Still, why didn't you use Imprison? I know you know it."

"Because I remembered that you said there's different rules here, so I didn't know if Imprison would stop him using his fire like it should. They don't have Moves, after all." Shadow watched Eon raise an eyebrow, nodding approvingly.

"Very good."

"Hey, it's not _just_ because of you we got that Hyper Rank, y'know." She grinned. "Actually, speaking of that, can I have my scarf back, please?" The blonde girl she'd given it to nodded absently, still staring at the sleeping dragon.

"I'm sorry, but _what_ did you _do_?" She asked, as Eon helped her tie her scarf again and made sure the badge was properly on display. "My power's getting nothing out of this."

"Your power?"

"Cape, Parahuman, whichever." She added. "Superpowers. I make connections, but right now I'm getting… basically static, from Lung."

"Lung?" Shadow cocked her head.

"Capes have names for in costume, and it's considered a very bad thing to use someone's real name while they're in costume, or vice versa." The blonde explained. "They're called the Unwritten Rules, and they're something you might want to look up sometime."

"Huh. Interesting." Eon murmured, lowly enough so that Shadow barely heard him.

"I used some of my Moves on him." Shadow explained in return, looking backwards at the slumbering Cape. "Baby-Doll Eyes, which lowers Attack, Tail Whip to lower Defence, Captivate lowers Special Attack, then Confuse Ray and Hypnosis, which Confused him and put him to sleep."

"Why do I hear capitals there?"

"Because they're stats." Eon continued, sitting on his haunches and sweeping his tails around his legs. "Attack and Special Attack govern the outgoing effectiveness of Physical and Special Moves respectively- for example, something like a Tackle would be Physical, while Flamethrower is Special- and Defence and Special Defence deal with incoming attacks of the same type. If Shadow here was to Tackle me, then her Attack would go against my Defence, for instance, and the damage I took would depend on the outcomes of that."

"Interesting…" The blonde mused. "And _'Confused'_?"

"Pretty much what it suggests." The white Ninetales said. "It causes an enemy to act strangely, misinterpreting orders and sometimes injuring themselves because they were distracted part way through an attack."

"I think I want to talk to the two of you again sometime." She decided, after a moment's pause. "This sounds _incredibly_ interesting."

"I'd like that." Shadow smiled. "Oh! Actually, what's your names? You know mine, and Eon's, after all."

"I'm Tattletale," the girl replied, with a vulpine smile both fox Pokemon matched. "That's Grue, our leader, that's Regent, and the girl at the back is Bitch." They turned their heads sharply to look at her. "It's just what she prefers. The PRT tries to call her Hellhound, but her name's Bitch." Slowly, Eon nodded.

"And her?" He pressed, pointing at the bug user. Said Cape twitched, seeming embarrassed at being singled out.

"Ah, um, I don't have a name." She told him. "First night out." Shadow's eyebrow rose.

"Wow. Who thinks to fight a dragon on their first night? Even _our_ first exploration was pretty low rank."

"Our first exploration was an E Rank, in a forest, pix." Eon deadpanned. "Of course it was easy for a pair of Fire types."

"Neh." She stuck her tongue out at her partner, who sighed. "Anyway, what about… Illumise?

"I-llu-me-say."

"I-llu-mys." Shadow retorted. "No distracting me. Or Masquerain? Or Vespiquen, or Vivillon? Maybe Genesect?"

"Pardon?" Tattletale and the girl chorused. Eon sighed.

"All of them were different 'mons we're familiar with." Waving one of his tails like a brush, the air rippled, and pictures of the different Pokemon Shadow had suggested appeared there. "All Bug types, though Genesect is what's called a Legendary. They're all really powerful."

"Ah- maybe not that, then." She winced.

"Vespiquen could be good for you, though." Eon gave, making the mentioned Pokemon float forward slightly. "Female only, and they direct a hive of Combee, the pre-evolved form." A pair of Combee appeared as well. "The left is Male, and the Females have that red mark to identify them."

"And no-one would mind?" Shadow snorted.

"We've got a Vespiquen on call as part of the team backup." She told her. "She'd probably take it as a complement that you chose to use her name as your own."

"I- thank you, then. I'll think about it." The possibly-newly-named Cape smiled behind her mask, and Eon nodded in return.

"No worries. Now, Shadow," the younger fox looked over at him as the illusions vanished. "Come on, it's time we got going. Still need to set up a base, after all."

"Yup yup!" She bounced, jumping on the spot. "Lead the way, leader! Bye, you guys! And girls!" Eon rolled his eyes, standing and turning in a sweeping movement. "Seeya again sometime!" Both of them padded off, turning into a nearby alleyway and stalking down it.

Flicking his tails, Eon set up the invisibility illusion again, looking at his teammate.

"What do you think?"

"They're odd." She replied promptly, trotting to keep up with him. "That Tattletale girl reminds me a bit of that annoying Alakazam we met ages ago."

"She did have a very smug air, yes." Eon nodded. "But I mean about them as a whole."

"I think the bug girl would be a really good Rescue team member." Shadow began. "She's got the right sort of air for it, and fighting a dragon takes a lot of guts."

"Rather like someone else I know." He smirked, looking slyly at his partner, who pouted.

"Look, not _my_ fault the silly Druddigon was mad…" She grouched.

"I wasn't implying such a thing. Now, the other team?"

"I don't think they're a Rescue team, or really good guys at all. I don't think they're _bad_ , not like those meanies in Team Meanies, but they aren't good guys either." Shadow decided, after a moment's pause. "Dunno why, though."

"Interesting." Eon frowned, then adjusted the illusion slightly as they went onto a main street. "We'll have to see if we can speak to that Tattletale girl again soon, then."

"Alright. Hey, can we try and find the bug girl too?" Shadow asked, enthusiastic. "I liked the feel of her."

"Ok, ok." He smiled slightly through his sigh. "After we have a base set up. Can't be a Rescue team without a base, after all."

"Nope!" Shadow ran after him with a grin. "Hey! Maybe when we're done, we can recruit the bug girl into the team! I mean, she'd have to be here and couldn't come with us… unless one of the _really_ big Legendaries did something, but she could be in our team here! How cool would that be?"

Eon sighed heavily again as Shadow began another spiel, turning down a new street and passing a motorcycle roaring the other way.

 _Some things never change…_

* * *

Lisa stared at the alleyway the two talking foxes had left through, and sighed heavily. _If that sentence isn't a sign that my life's getting too weird, then I have no idea what is._

"Well." Brian tried behind her. "That was something."

"Yeah." The new Cape nodded. "I just got given advice on Cape business from two foxes from who knows where. Not what I was expecting on my first night."

"Believe me, we weren't expecting them either." Alec said lackadaisically. Rachel grunted, while Lisa pursed her lips.

"Come on, team, let's get out of here in case big 'n scaly over there wakes up once the little one's out of range." She put forward, starting towards the dogs. "Hey, Bugs, need a lift somewhere safe?"

"Um, sure, I guess." The Cape looked nervously at Lung. "Would you be able to drop me off at Winslow?"

"The shithole high school?" Alec said, looking around the group.

"We can do that." Lisa nodded. "Bitch, Grue, I'll borrow one of the dogs and take Bugs here where she needs to go."

"Alright." Brian nodded. Rachel glared at her for a moment, then grunted her agreement, swinging herself onto Brutus' back while Brian and Alec climbed onto Judas. Lisa made her way up onto Angelica, offering a hand to the other Cape to help her up, then whistled a command to the dog, having her jump up to the roof and towards the school in silence. Behind her, she heard the other two dogs jumping after her, following her lead in silence as the strangeness of the night finally settled in for all of them.

* * *

When Armsmaster found the scene several minutes later, all he found was a collection of thrown objects, a number of burn scars on the ground, and an unconscious, slowly shrinking Cape lying face down on the ground, snoring slightly.

* * *

 **I had three options here; serious anticlimax, climatic battle, and mild anticlimax. You got the last one, since I thought it was the most amusing method of taking Lung down. Nothing can resist the Puppy Dog Eyes!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 3.**

 **Bases, conclusions, and exposition.**

* * *

"This place looks pretty neat!" Shadow grinned enthusiastically, bolting around the area with glee. "All foresty and green… it's pretty, too! Way nicer than the guild, or the cave in Sharpedo Bluff."

"I thought you liked Sharpedo Bluff." Eon queried, seating himself at the base of a tree to watch her.

"I _did_. It was just kinda drafty, and a bit boring in there. Too many rocks, made me think of that boring old mountain we found the smith Ninetales on. This is nice, though. Lots of trees to mess about with and it's all pretty!"

"You'd need to be more careful not to set this one on fire, though." Eon said drily. Shadow popped out from behind the tree she was running near and glared at him.

"It only happened _once_ , and that wasn't even _my fault_!" Shadow yipped angrily at him. "And we fixed it! Besides, that field was ugly anyway!" Eon chortled to himself.

"As you say, little pix." He grinned. "Besides the point. Set up a base here?"

"Hmmm..." Shadow walked around the tree, looking about the forest. "Yeah, I think so. It's pretty, and kinda nicely hidden." She hummed. "We'd need to knock down a bunch of stuff to make a base, though."

"Eh." Eon shrugged, standing again with a ripple. "We can put something together, don't you think?"

"Yeah!" The Vulpix bounced. "C'mon, Eon, let's go find stuff and build a little base!" He laughed.

"You go and find sticks and branches to build with, ok? I'll set up the area to build in."

"O-kay!" Shadow ran off, weaving through the trees, while Eon panned his view about. His eyes fell on an old tree, a willow, with a few roots poking out from the ground.

"Hmm..." Sniffing for a moment, Eon nodded. "Yeah, this'll do." Pawing at the ground to make a little indent, he began digging using his Psychic power, making a hole under the tree roots.

* * *

Lung looked up as Armsmaster entered his view, standing outside his cell.

"Come to gloat?" He growled, before Miss Militia made her way over as well.

"No. We came to find out what happened." The woman said, looking at him. Lung raised an eyebrow.

"I thought you would know, Miss Militia." He scowled. "Indeed, I do not myself, truly." Armsmaster stiffened slightly.

"How don't you know?" He asked. "You were the one fighting."

"Indeed." The Dragon of Kyushu nodded. "I was. I fought an insect user. She was not who won, however."

"So you killed her." It wasn't phrased as a question, but he snorted and shook his head.

"No. She was carried away by my opponent's partner." He laughed. "A grey _Kyuubi_ , one clearly of great power, rescued her from our fight."

"A Kyuubi?" Miss Militia asked, confused.

"A kitsune of legend, but one who has aged to the point of near- _Kami_." He explained slowly. "Such a powerful creature could defeat even me with ease, such are their strength."

"So this... _Kyuubi_ ," Armsmaster said, "Fought you?" Lung barked out a laugh.

"No, it did not. If it had, I feel it may be likely there would have been more damage to our arena." He snorted. "And potentially more weather changes. No, the white _Kyuubi_ did not challenge me. That it left to a younger kitsune, with six tails, it called its shadow."

"And the younger one beat you?" Miss Militia checked.

"It did. Do not be fooled; young at it may have appeared, to have six tails tells of its great strength." He growled to himself again, irritated at the memory of his defeat. "And it did not even use its power upon me. It merely spoke, and calmed my rage with its words, before sending me to sleep, where you clearly found me. The _Kyuubi_ and its kitsune must have taken the Cape with them as they left. The Undersiders were there as well, though I do not know what those legendary creatures would have done with them." He thought for a moment. "Perhaps it killed them, though I doubt it. Kitsune are not known for such actions. More likely that the _Kyuubi_ merely removed them from the area for whatever reason it may have had." Miss Militia and Armsmaster exchanged glances, before the Tinker thudded away. Miss Militia waited a moment more, giving a nod of thanks to the captive Cape, before following her fellow Protectorate member.

Lung snorted, settling back in his cell.

 _A_ Kyuubi _saved that girl,_ he thought to himself, _and a white_ Kyuubi _at that. Even if it sent the younger kit to battle me, the_ Kyuubi _was still the one to save her._ His eyes widened slightly, long-ago stories coming back to the forefront of his mind. _A white_ Kyuubi _... one of Inari-sama's messengers? And the young kitsune must have been a younger_ Zenko _kitsune. Perhaps some kind of apprentice?_

He placed a hand on his chin.

 _For not one, but two messengers of Inari-sama to come to the rescue of that Cape, and two so old and powerful as a six-tailed and a_ Kyuubi _no less... interesting._ He mused silently. _Yes, very interesting indeed. For Inari-sama to send a messenger to her... but was it for her, or for me?_ He paused at that. _If it was for me, it was to stop my actions and protect the girl. If not, Inari-sama had a message for the Cape, and I was a target of opportunity. As, perhaps, were the Undersiders._ He nodded firmly to himself. _If Inari-sama allows it, then perhaps I shall watch for that Cape as well. I believe she will go to do great things._

Decision made, Lung leaned back against the wall again, resolving to instruct his men to avoid the girl and Inari's kitsune the next chance he got, when he inevitably was broken out of the PRT's hold, as well as resolving to try and follow the Cape's journey closely.

He did not think she would die, like most Capes who were independent. She would likely not be a villain, given what he saw of her morals and that Inari himself was guiding her in some way. New Wave was unlikely, unless she had no family, and the Wards would be a bad fit for her if she was being guided by a _Kami_. No, independent she would be, so he would watch to see where she went in her career.

It would, at the very least, be interesting.

* * *

Carefully, Shadow nudged the last branch into place under Eon's watching eyes.

"I think we're done." She grinned, flopping to the ground. "Right, Eon?" The Ninetales walked forward, circling the little den once before nodding.

"I think so, Shadow." He agreed, smiling at her. "Should do well."

"Mhm." The little fox yawned. "Took a bit too long, though. Probably going to be daytime soon."

"There's enough time to rest, though." Eon said, poking her in the side. She yipped, affronted, and he snickered. "C'mon pix, we'll go explore a bit more later."

"Mkay." She grumbled, slinking inside. He heard her curl up on the bed she'd claimed, and a few seconds later her snores drifted out, making him smile to himself.

"Good job, pix." He said quietly. "Might've pushed our luck asking you to fight the dragon guy- Lung, but you did good there. Definitely not the little apprentice I picked up a few years ago." He chuckled at the memory of the young, wide-eyed Vulpix who'd asked him to help her be a Rescue team Pokemon, before following her inside, pulling closed the woven door while the willow tree settled around them, hiding it from sight.

* * *

"... and that's how our universe works." Tattletale finished, leaning back in her chair and sipping on a mug of coffee. On the other side of the table, Eon nodded.

"I see."

"So, there's a bunch of people with powers that've been through a really bad event, and loads of them keep fighting each other? Sounds kinda scary." Shadow opined, drinking her hot chocolate.

"It can be, especially the Endbringers." Tattletale nodded. "I've never actually seen one up close, and I really hope I won't have to anytime in the future, but we've all seen the new reports. The last attack was in Feburary, the Simurgh, so there's probably going to be another next month."

"I see..." Eon mused again, twitching his tails.

"Yeah." She said. "Well, you've shown up randomly at our base- and it's _really_ annoying me that you found us so easily, by the way- and I've explained how everything here works so you don't do something stupid. Now, your end of the deal. Where did you come from, and how?" Eon chuckled.

"Alright, alright. You've certainly helped us, so we will explain. We come from a world full of Pokemon, creatures like ourselves and the ones we showed you yesterday. I'm called a Ninetales there, while Shadow is a Vulpix, the pre-evolved form."

"I'm not gonna evolve, though. I like being me!" Shadow grinned.

"There are different types of Pokemon, eighteen in total, and some types have an advantage over others- for example, as a Fire type, I have an advantage against Ice, but in turn Water types have an advantage over _me_." Eon waved his tail. "Moves have types as well, so Moves that have the same type as the user are stronger than others.

"Most Pokemon are fairly common, but some are known as Legendaries, like Genesect. These are very rare Pokemon- sometimes there's only one in existence- and they're pretty close to a sort of god. Then there are Mythicals, though I admit I don't really know what the difference is between a Legend and a Mythical."

"Interesting." Tattletale hummed. "What did Shadow mean about Hyper Rank last night?"

"Ah, you heard that?" Shadow blushed. "Well, in our world there's things called Mystery Dungeons, and Rescue or Exploration teams get formed to go look about in them. A lot of the time they do jobs, like rescuing people or finding lost items or fighting criminals that're hiding in a dungeon. There's ranks that get assigned that say how good your team is, which lets you do more difficult missions." She brightened a little. "Sometimes, if you get really powerful and famous, you might get challenges from Legendary or Mythical Pokemon!"

"And you're Hyper Rank?"

"Yep!" Shadow turned, showing Tattletale the badge on her scarf. "Exploration teams start on Normal Rank, then there's Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, Super, Ultra and Hyper. Above that is Master, and that climbs through three starred versions to Guildmaster." She frowned. "Though we aren't all that famous, and we still got a challenge from Hoopla, which is what brought us here in the first place."

"You're here because of a challenge?"

"Naw, we finished that." Shadow shook her head. "Dunno _why_ Hoopla sent us here, but he kinda showed up on one of our off days and asked if we could go somewhere for some reason. We said yeah, and then we came here."

"Anyway, we got that challenge request from Hoopa, which we ended up winning." Eon flicked his fur slightly. "And to be fair, we were kinda famous for helping out with that rescue for Uxie and Azelf, which is probably why we got a challenge from Hoopa."

"Uxie, Azelf?" Tattletale questioned. A flick of his tail caused three illusionary Legends to appear above the table.

"Uxie is the yellow one, Azelf is the blue one. The pink one's called Mesprit. We were asked to help find Mesprit, since she'd gone missing. They're Legends, but it turns out someone had attacked Mesprit to try and steal a Time Gear."

"A what now?"

"Time Gear." Shadow said, unnaturally serious. "They keep the flow of time working in an area. Uxie and Azelf's had been stolen, so we were asked to make sure she was ok, and found her unconscious with the Gear stolen."

"To be fair, at least it was for a good reason." Eon reasoned. "Though he could have explained things rather than just stealing them."

"What-"

"Another time, Tattletale." Eon said seriously. "But for the most part, that's all there is to our world. The battle mechanics Pokemon tend to use are complicated, there's status effects and stuff to deal with too, but none of those are really relevant here so there's no point going into them."

"I see." The Thinker- as she'd explained her powers- looked annoyed at the fact that her power didn't work on them very well, but she let the subject drop. "What do you plan on doing now?"

"The normal rescue work, probably." Eon shrugged with a ripple. "Rescue people, explore... not sure other than that."

"Yeah, there's not really any Dungeons or anything here..." Tattletale frowned. "Hero work might do for you... Don't suppose I could persuade you to join a villain team? The Undersiders have fairly good pay, the Boss is pretty generous." Smirking vulpinely, Eon reached a paw across the table.

"No, I think we'd rather avoid villain work. Though acting as your heroic rivals might be an amusing pass time." Tattletale grinned, putting her hand on his paw-

 _"As you wish. I have been watching you for some time, Lisa Wilbourn, I have become aware that you are something special, and I would like to buy your services."_

Word choice, buy vs. hire: large amounts of money involved.

Word choice, buy vs. make an offer: not really a negotiation.

 _She glanced at the weapons the three hired guns had in hand._

 _"I'm listening."_

-Eon shuddered slightly at the vision, a sound suspiciously like a scream echoing in the back of his mind.

"Yeah, that might be funny. Look, get yourself a phone or something- a burner, not something permanent- and maybe we can try and set something up with you sometime. It might give you some clout with the heroes." The purple-suited Cape frowned behind her mask. "Maybe I should see about giving Bugs some help too. Either on our team or maybe try set her up with you guys, if you'll take her."

"I'd love to!" Shadow grinned, while Eon removed his paw. "It'd be fun, though she wouldn't fit the theme."

"Theme?"

"We're Team Inari." Tattletale snorted.

"Like the Japanese God?" Shadow cocked her head.

"Dunno about that. In our world, Inari's a Ninetales like Eon here, but massive and super powerful and super old. Sometimes he's white, and sometimes he's a normal gold Ninetales, but a lot of the time he shows up as a red Ninetales. Apparently he hides in a mountain range that no-one's ever found. Pokemon used to think Eon was a messenger from Inari, since he's a shiny Ninetales."

"And I wouldn't know either way." Eon grumped. "Amnesia for a lot of my life, so I wouldn't know if I was one of Inari's helping Ninetales or not. Things were dull for a while, then Shadow here worked up the courage to ask me to make an Exploration team with her so she could join the Wigglytuff Guild. Had a lot of fun there over the last year and a half."

"Do you care that you don't remember?" Tattletale asked gently.

"Not really. If I find out what went on before, then I will. I'm happy as I am, so I'm not gonna try tripping the balance for something that doesn't matter all that much anymore." Tattletale blinked slowly.

"I see... Well, Inari's a god here as well. I'll let you use the computer to look it up if you want, though you could probably use your illusions and just go to a library or something to use the computers there." She grinned. "But yeah, you should probably go and look the stuff up at some point. Y'know, just in case..."

* * *

Taylor looked around the room carefully once again. It was a computer lesson, and she'd finished with her work, so she was going to use the rest of the time she had left to do a little bit of research into what had happened the night before.

It had been... weird, to say the least. Running into that group with the dogs was a bit of a surprise, as was finding out from Tattletale that Lung had been after them for a stunt they'd pulled. _That_ had been a bit awkward, since it wasn't really children she'd been trying to save after all.

Quickly, she looked up the names that'd come up in the conversation with the other strange additions and read the results.

Her eyes widened.

 _Villains?_ She thought, closing the tabs and leaning back in her chair to think. _I went and fought Lung for a bunch of_ villains? Before she could get too worked up about that, she frowned. _Then again, they seemed… alright. Not like bad people at all._ She shook her head, reaching for the mouse again. _Never mind that for now. I can figure out more about them later, when there's time._ Moving for the search bar again, she contemplated what she was about to do for a second, then typed in a search for information on white nine-tails foxes.

Nearly ten minutes later, she closed the tab and leaned back, gaping slightly.

 _You've_ got _to be_ kidding _me._ She closed her eyes, pressing the balls of her palms against them, and flinched as the bell rang. Slowly shutting down her computer, she contemplated what she'd just read over, trying to figure it out as she walked to her next class, head down. _Is someone pranking me? Using a projection of a white_ Kyuubi _as a way of fooling me? And a little kitsune as well? Or am I literally being followed around by a god's messenger and it's friend?_ The thought followed her through the rest of the day, causing her to completely ignore the attempts at bullying the rest of the school did.

 _I wonder if it's true?_

* * *

"Y'kay, Eon?" Shadow asked, as the invisible duo left the city proper and headed into the outskirts.

"Hm?" The larger fox shook his head, looking down at her in confusion.

"You ok?" She asked again, cocking her head. "You look kinda distracted. You were like that in the Undersider's base too, actually." She grinned. "Something on your mind?"

"Had another dizzy spell." He said quietly. Her eyes widened, and she automatically glanced around, despite there being no-one around and them being invisible.

"What did you see?" Shadow questioned softly.

"Flashback into Tattletale's past, I think." He replied, just as gently.

"Anything interesting?"

"I don't think she willingly joined that group." Eon muttered. "I saw the conversation where she was... _recruited_." He practically spat the word. "Three people, two males and a female, with guns, while her boss talked to her. It wasn't a request for her to work with him."

"I see." Shadow bit her lip, fangs pointing over slightly. "Do you think we should take a look into that?"

"Maybe, yeah." He nodded. "And we should probably look into this Inari thing, as well."

"We've got some time." Shadow looked upwards. "Think we should go search for a library for a bit?"

"Sure." Eon agreed, shaking the thoughts of the vision from his mind for a while. "Stay close, ok?"

"Ok!" Her mood immediately bounced back to normal, grinning and jumping on the spot as she began looking around them both, moving back towards the city again. Eon chuckled lowly at her change, following behind her as she ran from building to building, balancing on her back paws as she looked into windows.

* * *

 **Due to the fact that I've beaten both Blue Rescue Team and Explorers of Sky, I'm using the two of them as a basis for a lot of the Mystery Dungeon stuff in this story. Pokemon battling is complicated if you don't know it, with a lot of little nuances, so you might want to look up a type chart or something... luckily, stuff like that won't feature much here, since we're on Earth Bet, not the Pokemon world.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A Shadow, and Eon, and a Worm 4.**

 **Exploring, talking, and teaming.**

* * *

"Eeeeeoooonnnnn?"

Eon sighed. "Yes, Shadow?"

"I'm bboooorrrreeeddd." The little Vulpix whined. "Where the hell are the library's in this city?"

"I don't know, Shadow." Eon sighed again, casually tugging her closer to his side to make sure she didn't run into the person they were passing in the other direction. "I don't know the layout of this city either, remember?"

"I know..." She huffed. "But still, how could we get through _this much_ of the city and not run into a _single_ library?"

"...Yeah, that is a little ridiculous." He nodded. "You don't smell _anything_?"

"Nope, and I know you don't either, Eon." Shadow grumped, looking around again. "There's just humans everywhere. Some of the shops look pretty cool, though." Eon glanced over, seeing her looking into a window of a nearby building, one filled with colourful clothes.

"I suppose." The Ninetales sighed. "Though I dunno why you're looking."

"Use them for illusions." She explained, moving along. "We might need 'em." Eon raised an eyebrow at her, then shot a speculative look at the window again and following her.

"Fair enough." Eon nodded. "Anything interesting?"

"Eh, some of it." Shadow shrugged. "Looks cool and all, but I don't really see the point in a lot of it."

"Hm..." Eon said non-commentally. "How're your illusions doing?" He asked instead.

"Ok, I think." She grinned. "I've been working pretty hard at them." Looking around, Eon nodded towards an alley that smelt abandoned.

"Want to show me?"

"Sure!" Shadow pattered down the alley, her tails waving in anticipation, while Eon padded after her in curiosity. "Alright," she turned, looking at him. "Whatddya want to see first?"

"Anything you want." He shrugged. Shadow nodded, chewing her lip.

"Right." Closing her eyes, she waved her tails back and forth, focusing. A second Ninetales, one the normal golden colour, flickered into being next to her, breathing steadily as it looked at Eon. The shiny Ninetales' eyes widened, and he carefully circled it, watching the illusion move to track him with its eyes.

"...Impressive." He said slowly. "Very impressive." Shadow blushed, pawing at her neck.

"I've been watching how you move a lot." She explained. "It's one I've been working on for ages."

"You do all this through observation?" He asked.

"Mhm. I've done it with some of the others in the Guild and around town, too. It's... difficult," Shadow admitted, "Even Pokemon you'd expect to move the same like Stantler and Sawsbuck have loads of little differences to follow." She waved her tails again, the Ninetales copy moved its jaw for a moment.

"This was the hardest part, though." It said, in Shadow's voice. Eon gaped.

"Sounds too?" He stared, eyes wide.

"Yeah." The Vulpix coughed, her illusion stilling aside from its breathing. "Trying to throw my voice was hard at first. Then I figured out how to make the illusion of my voice. It's weird, and it took a while to make it sound right- I had Chatot help me with it- but I've got it now." She looked down. "Can't make it sound any different, though."

"Shadow, that's still _very_ impressive." Eon smiled proudly. "What else can you do?" The Ninetales vanished into the air, and Shadow's fur changed to a dark purple, with the fur on her tail turning black and her feet grey.

"Colour changing as well." She grinned, stepping backwards into the shadow of a dumpster. "Figured it'd be useful to hide with, now we're somewhere else." Eon nodded, focusing his own illusion. His grey fur went completely black, with dark grey tail tips, and smiled.

"Yeah, it probably would be a good idea." Eon replied, stepping out and dropping the illusion again. He quickly checked the invisibility one, as well as the one that was keeping them from being heard, while Shadow moved out.

"Mhm." She pawed at the edge of her scarf again, messing with the Rescue Badge proudly pinned there. "I've been messing with projections, mostly. Figured that if we can scare people off, we can avoid fighting too much here."

"Good idea, little kit." Eon stretched. "Now, want to keep going?"

"Sure." Shadow took a step forward, then froze, sniffing. "Huh?"

"What's up?" The Ninetales took a step forward.

"Shush!" Shadow snapped, sniffing around. "Something's weird."

"How?" Eon didn't move as the little Vulpix walked slowly around the area, focusing on a small spider on the wall.

"This spider." She said softly, careful not to startle it. "Something's wrong with it."

"What?" Eon shifted, leaning closer.

"I'm... not sure." She admitted. "It smells... _wrong_ , though." Eon raised an eyebrow, then sniffed.

"Huh." He frowned. "You're right." Sniffing at the bug again, he noted the scent that seemed to cling to it below the normal smell that bugs had. _That smells oddly familiar..._ he mused to himself.

"It smells kinda like..." Shadow paused, eyes suddenly wide. "The Bug Girl from last night." Eon's eyes widened as well, and he sniffed again.

"It is!" The Ninetales barked, surprised.

"Is she nearby, do you think?"

"Probably." Eon nodded. "We don't know how far her powers can stretch, but then again she could've just come through here."

"I don't think so." Shadow frowned. "The smell's too recent. It's kinda like she's exactly here, not just been here before." The little Vulpix brightened. "Hey, let's go find her and say hello!"

"Shadow, wait!" Eon sighed loudly. "Remember what Tattletale said about the Rules."

"Don't say hi to the Capes if they're not in costume, even if you know them." She nodded. "I know. I just wanna see if she's around."

"Alright." He sighed again at his younger partner, then followed her out of the alley. "But no interacting with her if she's out of costume."

"I _know_ , Eon." Shadow grumbled, exasperated.

"Just making sure." The larger vulpine shook himself carefully. "Now, second point. Any idea how to find her?" She paused, thinking.

"No idea." Shadow admitted. Eon snorted.

"Thought not."

* * *

Taylor sighed miserably as she glanced at the nearest window. Mentally, she noticed a few of the bugs in her range skittering about strangely as something passed them by, but the vision on her bugs was still too blurry for her to properly make anything out, so she ignored it and continued walking.

She wanted to go out in costume again.

She'd enjoyed the night before, once the absolute terror of fighting against Lung had worn off. The feeling of doing something, even just patrolling the rooftops, after that shitty day at school, had been great. She wanted to do it again.

And maybe she'd get lucky enough to run into the Undersiders again. They'd seemed nice, even if they were villains, and she wouldn't mind talking with them again.

Even Tattletale. She'd seemed like she was alright, though Taylor knew that their interaction had been shaded a bit by everything that'd gone on before, but she seemed like she'd be alright to talk to on occasion.

And then there were the foxes.

Taylor frowned, pausing at a display to think. The foxes had been... strange, to say the very least. Shadow and Eon. A pair of kitsune, apparently, one with six tails and one white one with nine. From what she'd read- assuming that she did her best to ignore the contradicting stories she'd found while looking- that meant that Shadow was the younger one, but still about six hundred years old and would be incredibly powerful, while Eon was a lot older, at least a millennium at a guess, and even more powerful.

She wondered why they'd never intervened with the Endbringers before. Maybe they hadn't been able to leave; given that she'd seen that they were apparently messengers of Inari, a Japanese God, she wouldn't be too surprised.

Taylor hoped to see them again as well. It'd be interesting to ask them to tell her stories, and maybe she could confirm that they were _actually_ godly messengers of some kind.

And of course, ask them why they'd intervened against Lung for her.

That, in particular, was something that'd been creeping in the back of her mind since she'd read about it earlier that day. Even the actions of the Trio hadn't been able to knock the foxes from her thoughts. The fact that the two had fought against Lung for her- well, that Shadow had put Lung down for her, was incredible to her. She was just Taylor, and they were- probably- god-level creatures. Why would they fight for _her_?

Taylor shook her head. _There's no way they were actually fighting for me. They'd probably come to deliver some kind of message to Lung by defeating him, and saving my life was just a side effect of it all._ She began walking back towards her house, planning to get as much of her homework done as possible so she'd be able to go out later and patrol again.

Looking around last second before she crossed a road, she frowned deeply when one of her bugs was shifted around by some unseen force in the alley nearby. Carefully, she moved a few more spiders and roaches into the area, trying to get a better image of what was there. There was a few minutes of shuffling, then a quiet cough.

"Hey, Bug Girl?" Taylor stiffened slightly, biting her lip to stop a shout, as the comparatively large fox rippled into view from nowhere. "Can you hear me?"

"Probably not, Pix." The other fox from the previous night put in, also appearing from nowhere. "Pretty sure bugs aren't as good with their senses as any of us are."

"Dangit." Shadow cursed lightly. "I was hoping to talk to her." Slowly, Taylor started moving her bugs about to get a better look at the two, drawing more and more bugs into the area, before arranging them into words.

 _Yes I can hear you._

"Oh!" Shadow barked. "You can hear us. Sweet! Hey Bug Girl, could we talk to you?" Taylor blinked.

 _Will patrol tonight. Meet then._

"Sure!" She got the impression that the fox was grinning. "Seeya then!" The two vanished, making Taylor raise an eyebrow before shrugging and continuing to walk towards her home.

She was still pretty confused by the foxes, but at least she was likely to get some answers now.

* * *

"That was a bit mean, Pix." Eon scolded lightly as they left the alley. "You've probably confused her."

"I just want to talk with her later, Eon." She grinned, bouncing about. "We'll still have to find her later too." The Vulpix went contemplative. "Maybe we should try and find where she tends to hang about, so we could set up meeting places there." Eon sighed.

"Shadow, did you even _listen_ to Tattletale's lecture on the Unwritten Rules?"

"Of course I did." She looked back at him, offended. "But they're unwritten, so they're unofficial, and besides if we end up working with Bug Girl then we'd need places we could meet up in the city to save her having to walk to our base all the time." Eon blinked, then nodded.

"Makes sense. Sorry, thought you meant before we see if she wants to work with us." Shadow snorted.

"Heh. Nah, I wouldn't do that. Those rules're obviously there for a reason, so we should probably follow them." She snorted again. "Even if they're _really_ stupid. I mean, this entire world relies on a mask and people's unwillingness to _'out'_ the person behind it to function right. All it'd take is one guy with too much knowledge in stuff they shouldn't know, and everyone'd be screwed." She looked up at the sky for a moment, sighing. "Everything's way simpler back home. Famous people are famous, and teams get mission requests. Unless there's a stupid crisis, no-one's really in that much danger."

"I know what you mean, Pix." Eon patted her head gently. "C'mon, let's see if we can find one of those dang libraries about."

"Alright." The two of them pattered off, Shadow staying quite close to Eon as they made their way through the crowd on what seemed to be the main street of the city.

* * *

"Found one!" Shadow called, pushing off of the wall and away from the building she'd been sniffing at.

"Finally." Eon growled. "Seriously, how was it so hard to find a library in this city?"

"Dunno. Maybe there's just not that many libraries?" Shadow shrugged. "Or we just got really unlucky and started on the exact opposite side of the city to where they all are?"

"One of them, sure." Eon tapped her side, herding her towards an alleyway. "Let's go put up some sort of human illusion so we can go in."

"Sure." Shadow yawned slightly. "Urgh. Tired."

"Really?"

"A bit, yeah." She yawned again, shaking herself. "No idea why. Anyway, can you do human as an illusion?"

"Well, I can do Lucario and Gardevoir, and I doubt it's much different to that." Eon shrugged, flicking his tails. "So let me put this one up, then I'll drop the other illusions we need to get rid of."

"I _really_ want to learn how to layer illusions like that." Shadow muttered jealously.

"You'll get there in time, little Pix." Eon grinned. "Anyway, done. Come on, let's go and look up what we need."

"Sure." Shadow, now under the illusion of a fairly nondescript teenage girl, nodded. Eon was using the form of a just as stereotypical teenage boy, both of the illusions made up of different people they'd come across while wandering around invisibly. The Vulpix made her way back out of the alley, the illusion duly following her path while Eon and his illusions did the same. Both of them quietly made their way into the library, greeting the human on the desk with a low voice before heading over to the computers. Eon's illusion sat down while the Ninetales himself jumped into the chair and peered at the unfamiliar screen, while Shadow went to sniff at the bookshelves with her illusion in tow. "Some of these look really interesting, I might have to figure out some way of borrowing some."

"Be careful what you say, Shadow." Eon muttered, pushing a button on the monitor and smiling to himself when it turned on. "Remember the illusions."

"Sorry." She winced, coming back over to look over his shoulder as he carefully moved the mouse about, trying to figure out how it all worked.

"And don't forget that you don't actually exist as a person here."

"I know." Shadow hummed, while Eon made his way onto the internet and waited for it to load. "Hey, maybe Bug Girl could help us."

"Maybe, Shadow." Eon grimaced, typing his search into the bar and pushing the button labelled enter, then sighing softly when he was rewarded with more loading. "These things are more complicated than I realised."

"Didn't Tattletale say we should get phones?" She checked idly. "We'd probably have to ask for help there too, unless these Capes can normally go and buy things from shops."

"I somehow doubt it is, Shadow." Eon muttered, as the screen popped up with his search results. "Since Capes apparently rely on a secret identity so much, I doubt many of them go shopping in those identities."

"It's still really silly, though." She huffed, resting her front paws on the desk so she could see the computer screen.

"You've said." Eon sighed, frowning at the results before shrugging and picking the first one on the screen to click. "Now, let's see what Tattletale was implying earlier…"

* * *

Nearly an hour of reading later, the two Pokemon wandered out of the library again, sparing a distracted nod for the librarian before heading a little ways down the slightly clearer road and slipping into an alley. It only took a few moments for Eon to reset all of the illusions to the original invisible-inaudible combination the two had been using before they'd found the library.

"Well then." He tried to begin, before pausing.

"That was something." Shadow attempted, also falling silent. For a little while, the two of them just sat there, looking up at the slowly darkening sky- it was about four in the afternoon if he had to guess, and being April the sun was going down fairly slowly, so they still had plenty of time to burn before night came around- and thinking.

"I believe I understand what Tattletale meant about our team name. And what she was smirking about when she recommended that we go and do some research into things surrounding kitsune and Inari in this world." Eon finally managed, some three minutes later. "And I also get the feeling that Tattletale finds this sort of thing far more amusing than most should."

"Yeah." Shadow sighed. "Sorta getting that impression as well, Eon." She suddenly giggled, making Eon raise an eyebrow and look at her in confusion. "Hey, think of it this way; we kinda _are_ messengers from a god, right? I mean, Hoopa kinda counts… I think. He's a Mythical Pokemon, anyway, so it's probably close enough." Eon stared at her for a moment, then started laughing.

"Oh, this _will_ be fun." He grinned widely. Shadow cocked her head.

"What?"

"The world thinks- or will think, once people start seeing us without getting the full story- that the both of us are messengers of a god, right?" His eyes sparkled slightly as all nine tails swept back and forth. "Why don't we give them exactly that impression?"

"And pretend to be god messengers?" Shadow asked. "Huh. Could be fun."

"As you said, it's not like it's exactly a lie, is it?" Eon chuckled. "So why not play along with it? It's what we do, after all."

"I guess, yeah." Shadow grinned back at the elder fox. "Tattletale knows the truth, though, and she's probably told her team about it as well."

"And we'll have to tell the Bug Girl if she wants to join the team." Eon agreed. "But other than that, it's probably not gonna get anywhere. And from what Tattletale said about this PHO thing, people'll probably start to speculate the second we get brought into the public eye." Eon huffed slightly. "It'll be the old days all over again." Shadow nuzzled against his chest.

"Hey, it won't get that bad, I'm sure." The Vulpix assured.

"The reactions are likely to be either awe or fear." Eon countered. "Which is near enough the same as last time."

"To be fair, though, I'm pretty sure the awe outweighed the fear by kinda a bit." She smiled. "C'mon, it'll be _fine_. Besides, if people end up worshipping us, or it gets too bad, we'll just come out with the truth, right?"

"Sure thing, little pix." The shiny Ninetales nodded. "If it all goes well, we'll just bring it up some other time, but for now we let people think what they like."

"Yup!" Shadow bounced, glad her friend had cheered up slightly. "Now c'mon, let's go back to the den! We should take a nap before we go find Bug Girl later tonight."

"We _really_ should've tried to set up some sort of meeting point for her." Eon sighed, partly at the short-sightedness of not doing so, and partly at his teammate's enthusiasm. _I swear, she can bounce back from the oddest situations like it's nothing._

"Eh, I'm sure we'll find her." She shrugged, hopping back and forth near the entrance of the alley. "Now _come on_ , Eon."

"Alright, alright." He sighed again, following his little friend. "Let's get back."

* * *

Taylor stood alone on a rooftop, carefully directing her bugs to scan the area. She wasn't far from where the two vulpines had been earlier today, when they'd spoken to her bugs in the alleyway, but she was still using every bug in her range to scan the area in an attempt to find them, simply because she wasn't entirely sure they would be able to find their way back.

She wouldn't say that they _definitely_ couldn't, given that they'd managed to figure out that she was controlling and use them to talk to her- if only barely, given how hard it was to listen or see using insect senses. Still, though, Taylor wanted to make sure she found them if they came anywhere near her, so she could guide them over and talk with them.

Naturally, Taylor was curious about the sudden appearance of the pair, since they'd just shown up in the middle of her fight, and right now she couldn't help but want to see them again. Partly to thank them, and partly just because things had been eating at her all day that she _really_ wanted answering.

Like the whole god thing, for one.

Pausing as she noticed something with one of her bugs, Taylor carefully scanned that area, bringing a small army of cockroaches out from under a nearby dumpster to help her build a picture of the area her spider was in.

"Hello?" A quiet and familiar voice called. Taylor brightened slightly, moving her bugs in response.

 _Hello._

"Hi there Bug Girl." Shadow greeted lowly, suddenly appearing in front of them. Despite herself, she twitched in surprise. "How're you doing?" Taylor raised an eyebrow.

 _Alright why._

"Just wondering." The blurry shape looked up and sniffed the air. "Where are you? Eon's trying to find you with the smell right now, but it's kinda hard with all the bugs copying it." Slightly confused as to what the littler fox meant, Taylor began moving the single firefly she had in her possession towards the two of them.

 _Bringing firefly follow when there._

"Ok, no problem." Shadow nodded. "Hey Eon, Bug Girl's bringing a firefly over to us so she can guide us to her, so you can stop trying to figure out her scent now."

"Alright, Shadow." A larger grey form walked into view as well, seating himself on the ground and brushing all nine tails around his paws, while he seemed to look down his nose at her bugs. "Hello. How're you doing right now? Recovering well from last night?"

 _Yes much better didnt get hurt much anyway. Thank you._

"You're welcome." Eon seemed to smile- Taylor couldn't really tell, given how blurry the view was- before flicking an ear. "Out of curiosity, what made you think it would be a good idea to fight that Lung guy, anyway?"

"Yeah, seems a bit silly to fight a fire user with bugs." Shadow opined. "I mean, I'm sure you could do it, but it doesn't seem like a good idea to." Taylor paused, thinking for a moment, then took notice of where the firefly she was guiding was.

 _Follow fly talk in person._

"Alright, no biggy." Shadow smiled. She looked around, obviously spotting the bug as she stood, shaking out her fur and tails, before pattering over to it. Eon followed after, and Taylor led them silently towards her position on the rooftop, the two foxes managing to make themselves go unnoticed by the people still wandering the streets- even this late, and even in Brockton Bay, there were a few.

 _A Stranger effect of some kind?_ Taylor thought

It was only a few minutes later when the sound of claws on brick caught her attention, making Taylor turn around to greet the two, her firefly landing on her hair before going dark and burrowing in among the other bugs she'd placed there for quick access.

"Hiya!" Shadow greeted, shaking her head as she reached the top of the building. "Nice to see ya again, Bug Girl!"

"Like Shadow said." Eon nodded, bounding up next to her in a much more graceful fashion, grey fur blending in surprisingly well against the night yet still shimmering in the starlight. "It's nice to see you on better terms, however." He sniffed at the air, Shadow inching slightly closer and doing the same. "You're healing well, though. That's good, we were worried we'd gotten to you a bit late."

"No, you got there on time. I mainly stepped in because I thought he was trying to kill kids, but I probably should've thought more." Taylor smiled, before realising that the mask would hide her facial expressions, _need to remember that,_ "And thank you for stepping in to help me." _Even if I don't understand why._

"No problem!" Shadow grinned in return, small, pointed teeth glinting, while Eon peered at her down his nose. "We're a Rescue Team, so it's our job to help people!"

"A Rescue Team?" Taylor frowned. "What do you mean?" Eon sighed.

"That's part of what we want to talk to you about." The two moved closer, Eon sitting down and sweeping his tails around his paws while Shadow just lay on her stomach, stretching out a bit as she did. "We figured we owed you an explanation after last night. We gave one to Tattletale this morning as well, so we thought we should do the same for you."

"Y'know, since you're probably a bit confused about us jumping in to save you and all." Shadow added.

"I am a bit." She admitted, slowly sinking down to their level. Even sitting, she was somewhat taller than Eon, though both of the foxes had a sort of presence about them that made them seem much larger than they were. "I… did do a bit of research, though. While I was at school." She chewed her lip, reluctant to continue, then spat it out. "Are you really kitsune? Like, Inari kitsune?" For some odd reason, this made Eon bark out a laugh, while Shadow's eyes lit up as she stared at her friend.

"Huh." She muttered. "Guess you weren't wrong about what people'd think."

"Well, they don't know." Eon smirked, shooting a glance at her before looking back at Taylor. "Not quite. Let us explain, it'll make sense then." Taylor looked between the two vulpines, focusing on the grey one as he began talking.

It went on for quite some time.

* * *

Taylor gaped between them.

"Huh."

"Yeah, it is that." Shadow snickered, apparently finding her moment of mental incomprehension amusing.

"I mean… huh." She tried again, then shook herself, absently pushing her confusion into her bugs and making them run about in her hair. "I don't know if _'creatures from another world who came here for an unknown reason and happened to find me'_ is better or worse than _'messengers from a Japanese god showed up and interrupted my fight and saved my life to leave a message for me and-or my opponent.'_ "She said, making the others snort.

"When you put it like that, I'm not sure either." Eon murmured, avidly watching her hair. "I wonder what you happen if you got close to an Ariados or something similar…"

"Pardon?"

"Oh, nothing. Just a thought." He shook his head, Shadow smiling slightly, and gave Taylor a look-over. "So, any other questions?"

"No, I think we got them all." She decided. "I might think of some new ones later, but for now I'm good."

"Alright." Eon smiled at her. "Now, I know Shadow had something she wanted to ask you…"

"Hm? Oh, yeah!" Shadow grinned, leaping up from the roof and shaking herself. "Bleh, dust."

"Should've thought of that before you lay down." She stuck her tongue out at him, making Taylor giggle, before looking back up at the masked girl.

"Wanna join our team?" She asked. Taylor spluttered, then gaped.

"Sorry, _what_?"

"Want to join the team?" She asked again, sitting down and raising a paw to her badge. "I'm not sure where we'd get a badge like this one, but I don't think it works here anyway, since we're not exactly at home, but we could think of something. Then we could work together, like the Undersiders did, or like the Wards people apparently do." Taylor nodded faintly, still surprised.

"Why me, though?" She said, bewildered.

"Why not you?" Shadow returned, cocking her head in honest confusion. "I mean, you're the only other one who knows all this, and we couldn't really go poach Tattletale from her team, that'd be a bit rude and they're friends anyway. Most of our team is back home, and while we might be able to ask Hoopla-"

" _Hoopa_!"

"To bring them over, they're all busy with their own lives and probably taking missions on behalf of our team during our trip." Shadow finished, completely ignoring Eon's exasperated bark. "So I spoke to Eon, and he agreed. It takes a lot of courage to try and fight a dragon, especially when you're not very strong against their abilities…" She trailed off for a moment, muttering angrily under her breath about Druddigon and angry Gible, much to Taylor's confusion, before smiling again. "So we could be a team, and work together to fight crime and outlaws, and maybe we could try and set up something silly with the Undersiders. Tattletale suggested that bit, since she thought it might be helpful for us to get a reputation with the local heroes in a bit more of a public fashion."

"I'm almost certain she's only suggesting it because it would give her some leverage over us that she could use." Eon said drily, flicking his tails slightly.

"Eh, whatever, it'd probably work." Shadow waved him off, pawing at her scarf again. "So, whaddya say, Bug Girl? Fancy joining Team Inari and trolling the world with us?" Taylor looked down at her for a moment, then across at Eon, waiting patiently with a red-eyed gaze.

 _I could say no,_ she thought. _Say no, and just do the solo hero thing I was sort of planning on doing._ The idea wasn't too off-putting; she'd already been resigned to doing it anyway, unless she could get into the Wards. But it would also mean a bigger risk; no team mates to watch her back or help her if she got injured, a bigger chance of being forcibly _'recruited'_ by one of the gangs, and she'd be on her own.

She'd honestly had enough of being on her own, after Winslow.

Taylor was pretty sure she'd already made her mind up the second she'd been asked, and held out her hand. "Sure. Let's work together and mess with people. Should be fun."

"Great." Shadow beamed, placing her paw on her palm. "My name's Shadow, the second-in-command of Team Inari."

"And I'm Eon, team leader." The grey Ninetales added, shaking her hand with a paw as well. "What's your name?" Taylor grinned widely.

"I'll tell you my real name later, somewhere more private," she replied, "But you can call me Swarm."

* * *

 **Sorry I'm late, real life came by and reminded me I had to pay some attention to it, so I've been busy. Anyway, Taylor's got a name now, and she's part of Team Inari! From this point on, Taylor-in-costume is going to be referred to as Swarm, by the way, just to avoid confusion as to whether or not she's Caping.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 5.**

 **Chattering, patrolling, and raiding.**

* * *

"Well then, Swarm," Eon smiled lightly, "What do Capes normally do on this world?"

"Patrols, I think." She replied, standing and stretching. "Just wander around and look for crimes to stop."

"Hmm." The Ninetales huffed, standing as well and shaking himself, fur rippling in the movement. "Well, I think it's a bit late for that, don't you?" He turned his head skyward, looking at the moon. "We've been talking for something like three hours, I reckon."

"Oh, hell." Swarm muttered. "It must be what, two in the morning?"

"Something like that." Shadow nodded, shaking herself out. "Do you want to try for a patrol of some kind?"

"No… no, I think it's best we don't." She decided, after a moment. "To be honest, I'm still a bit distracted from everything you've told me. I wouldn't really want to risk that on trying to fight someone."

"Makes sense." Eon nodded. "So, we should try and do another couple of things instead."

"Like what?"

"Well, a meeting place, for one." Shadow told her. "A team needs a place they can meet up, either to share information or go out together."

"That makes sense." The Cape admitted. "It'd be a bit annoying trying to find each other all the time."

"We have got a base set up," Eon said, "But it's quite a ways out of the city, so it might be a bit awkward trying to meet up there."

"How far?"

"I'm not exactly sure, we didn't really measure, but there's a nice grove a ways away. There's a few willow trees, and we used them to make a hideout."

"Could we go there now, do you think?" Swarm asked. "I'll need to be back home sort of soon, because it's Tuesday and I have school tomorrow, but I can go until four or so."

"Is that enough sleep?" Shadow seemed a little sceptical. "I mean, that can't be very much."

"It's about three hours, I'll cope." She shrugged. "Besides, school's a bit of a wreck at the best of times, so I don't really care anyway." Eon and Shadow traded glances, then shrugged as well.

"Alright. We'll head back down to ground level, and I'll put the invisibility and inaudibility illusions back up. It'll be easier to avoid people then, especially since we're not really looking for trouble tonight." The elder explained. "Though if we run into something we should help."

"No argument there." Swarm muttered.

"Tattletale filled us in on a lot of the situation in the city right now," he continued, pretending he hadn't heard her, "So we know a lot of what to expect. Hopefully we don't run into anyone too dangerous on the way over."

"Famous last words." She snorted, going over to a fire ladder on the side of the building, both Pokemon following her. "This is Brockton Bay, something _always_ goes dangerous here." Shadow snickered.

"Oh, have we got some stories for you, Swarm." She said, crouching down in preparation to jump. "Trust me, we've had some _experiences_ with danger." Swarm seemed to smile, swinging herself onto the ladder.

"I'm looking forward to it."

* * *

"This is where we've set up our base." Eon announced, stepping into the clearing through one of the willows. Long tails kept the branches out of the way, letting his two partners through as well, and he smiled up at the only masked member of the group. "There's no-one anywhere nearby, and I'm gonna be setting a bunch of illusions up over the next few days, so no-one can find it even when we're gone. At the moment, it's only invisible and only when I'm here, but the prep kit has some stuff I can use."

"Pardon?" Swarm asked, confused. Eon barked out a laugh.

"It's a trick I learned from a Zoroark, a few months back. He used little gems to anchor illusions too, and he ended up teaching me how to do it. It's his signature move, but mostly because he's never found someone else with the potential to learn it."

"And it took you the better part of the time we were at home, too." Shadow put in. "He basically went on vacation from missions for a while to try getting it down."

"It's a useful trick, though." Eon retorted, tapping her head. "When I've got it all set up here, no-one's ever gonna find this place."

"What will they do?" Swarm questioned, interrupting the mini argument.

"Invisibility, inaudibility, which is mostly useful when we're here, a few fake Pokemon that'll appear to attack to drive people off if they get too close, some actual animals, and an automatic avoidance field." Eon listed. "I've tested that last one a lot, and as long as you don't know it's there, you won't resist it." Shadow snorted, muttering lowly.

"He tested it with me." She grumbled softly. "I was refusing to go anywhere near the base all day because of it."

"Once she knew it was there, though, she could fight back against the feelings." Eon told her. "I'll make sure anyone who needs to get near knows, just so they can do the same."

"That's really impressive." The Cape muttered. "A sort of Master-Shaker field… I don't know of anyone who can do something like that." Eon smiled.

"Well, anyway," he said, gaining her attention again, "We're in a perfectly private place, and no-one's going to find us, Swarm, so what's your actual name?" The girl hesitated slightly, then reached up and pulled off her mask, revealing a somewhat plain girl with brown eyes and a wide mouth.

"Taylor." She said quietly. "Taylor Hebert."

"Nice to have you with us, Taylor." Eon smiled again, offering his paw once more. She took it in her off hand-

 _Trudging through a building, head down, looking at the floor through black glasses._

 _Three girls, laughing and teasing, while the rest of the school watched on._

 _Approaching a locker, a foul smell, opening it._

 _Seeing the mess inside, retching, being pushed, the slam of metal on metal, the click of a lock._

 _Screaming for help as things crawled about her._

 _Blackness._

-and shook again.

"Thank you for offering to let me join." She replied quietly.

"Hey, you were really cool last night, and I'm sure you'll be super helpful at super-heroing." Shadow beamed, tapping her paw on top of their joined hands. "I mean, what sort of stuff _can_ you do with bugs, anyway? I know Vespiquen commands a little bug horde, but I'm not really sure what she does, aside from healing and some defence."

"I normally use stinging insects," Taylor explained, squinting a little. "I have Epi-pens and stuff in case of allergies, since I use spiders and wasps a lot."

"Epi-pens?" Shadow asked, turning her head.

"They stop allergic reactions to things. Some sort of injection. I don't really know much more, sorry." She shrugged. "Anyway, it's what I was doing against Lung; using poisonous spiders to try and overcome his regeneration."

"That's pretty good." Eon told her, recovering from the sudden vision. "And we saw earlier you can hear through them-"

"Only when I have a lot of bugs in one area." She corrected. "Bug senses are really bad, so I can't see or hear anything unless I've got tons of bugs to use."

"Can you make illusions with them?" Eon and Taylor both looked down at Shadow, confused. "It's something I saw before, working with another team." She explained herself, sitting down. "Remember, back when the Guild was putting together that expedition, and wanted a few more experienced outsiders to join?"

"Yeah, I remember." Eon nodded. "Taylor, I'll tell you that story later on."

"Alright." Taylor agreed, sitting down next to her.

"Well, I ended up working with one of the other teams, while Eon was chattering away with a few people." She smirked at Eon, who groaned. "And there was a Vespiquen there, too. She used to use her mini hive to make shapes in the air, like we do with our illusions, to trick other Pokemon into going after them instead of her and her team."

"That's… huh." Taylor pursed her lips. "I didn't think of doing that. I mean, I've thought of using bugs as a distraction, but not to mimic someone as bait."

"I can do something similar." Shadow told her. With a frown of focus, a golden Ninetales appeared next to them, and she replicated the trick she'd shown Eon the day before.

"I make them talk too, but it's difficult." The Ninetales said. "It's sort of similar to the inaudibility illusion, but I'm almost moving the sound I make to the illusion." Shadow made the illusion vanish, coughing again.

"But it's kinda difficult, and I can't keep it up for long." She added. "It's something I only learned to do very recently- like, about a week before we came here. I'm gonna keep practising, though, it might be useful now that we're in another world. Still, maybe you could do something with your bugs, like make them in the shape of people to lure bad guys around?"

"I could probably manage…" Taylor chewed her lip for a moment, seeming introspective. A moment later, bugs began crawling out from the trees and into the clearing, making a pool near to Taylor, before suddenly rising up from the ground and creating a loose shape of a person. "I don't really have enough bugs to do anything more than that." She frowned.

"But you could." Eon smirked. "We get more bugs, make the clouds a lot darker… people would never know if it's you or a fake. That'll help keep you safe when we work."

"You think I'd be in danger?"

"We're fighting criminals, we're always in danger." Shadow remarked. "Better to trick the crap out of them and stay safe, right?"

"I guess, yeah." She sighed. "Wish I'd thought of this last night…"

"Eh, you're alive, which is all that matters." Eon assured her. "What else… right, we need to see about getting you a badge."

"What?"

"A badge, like this one." Shadow pointed at the pin on her scarf. "All Rescue Teams and Exploration Teams back home have one, and we use it to send the people we've been sent to rescue home, the criminals back to a base for the authorities, and get ourselves out of dungeons if we're having trouble." She smiled. "Of course, that won't work here, but it'll work well as a group identifier for other people in the city."

"That… makes sense." Taylor said softly. "But I wouldn't have the money to get one, and I know you don't. You've only been here a few days, after all."

"Just over a day, yes." Eon nodded. "But here's the thing; while you have school, we can be out roaming the city. We don't have a human civilian identity, so there'd be no paper trails to one of us getting the badge made, and we can probably sniff out gang hideouts and rob them invisibly." Eon nodded towards the hideout, where the Treasure Bag was hidden. "The bag we take on dungeon explorations is strangely large. We could take and hide money in there, bring it back to the base, then use it as we need it. Since we can just use illusions to hide what we really look like, we can do any sort of shopping with a different face each time, which will help."

"That… yeah." Taylor nodded in turn. "That makes sense." Quietly, she yawned.

"Would you like us to walk you back to your house?" Eon offered, seeing that the girl was tired.

"Sure, but we need to be careful." She warned, standing. "My dad doesn't know I'm a Cape."

"Why wouldn't you tell him?" Shadow asked. "Or your mom?"

"My mom died two years ago. Nearly three, now." Taylor said quietly. "Dad and I drifted apart since then."

"I'm sorry." Eon softly apologised. Taylor shrugged.

"Nothing for you to be sorry for." She pulled her mask back over her face, tugging her brown, wavy hair out of the back and swarming it with bugs again.

"Hey, while we walk, let me tell you about that thing on the expedition!" Shadow cheered, trying to bring the atmosphere back up. [i]'Swarm'[/i] looked down, interested, while Eon groaned.

"No, Shadow!" He pleaded. "Please!"

"Nuh-uh." She smirked, trotting alongside their new teammate. "Anyway, while we were on the trip, one of the Vespiquen's teammates, a Delcatty- it looks like this," Shadow formed an illusion of the purple and tan cat, letting it wander next to them for a moment before fading, "Caught Eon's eye. So, for practically the whole trip, Eon's mooning over this pretty little cat…"

* * *

Taylor slipped in through the back door, carefully locking it behind her and making her way upstairs. Reaching her room, she slipped out of her costume and hid it in the bottom of her wardrobe, before looking out of her window and over to the back yard. The white-grey form of Eon caught her eye for a moment, and he waved a blue-tipped tail at her before shimmering out of sight. Taylor spent a few minutes looking still, hoping to spot Shadow as well, before giving up and closing the blind, lying flat on the bed and staring at the ceiling in deep thought.

During their walk back, Taylor had ended up telling Shadow and Eon where her school was, among the general chat of the slow pace, which they'd set in order to avoid disturbing the illusion. Eventually they'd had to quieten down to near silence as well, to make sure no-one could hear them, but they'd still spoken slightly with each other, making plans to meet up the next night and go on a proper patrol. They'd even had the idea of doing a few afternoon ones, once they had a bit more time on their hands, or perhaps doing them on weekends and roaming the city all day. Taylor had liked both ideas, and they'd set up their meeting point at a clothing store very near to Taylor's house, which they'd passed on the way. It was a very nice place, despite not being on the ever-popular Boardwalk, and Taylor had often wished she could afford to go in there.

She made a mental note to drop by the shops and pick up some burner phones the next day as well. She had the money for it- barely- and she'd been planning to do it anyway so that she could call in crimes when necessary.

Stifling a yawn, Taylor took out her contact lenses- she was glad she'd been able to afford them recently so she could go out in costume more easily, even though she still preferred her glasses most of the time- and rolled over to try and get some sleep before school the next day.

* * *

"What was it like this time, Eon?" Shadow asked softly as they stealthy made their way through an alley. The little Vulpix had noticed Eon going through another one of his visions when he'd taken Taylor's hand in the clearing, and had moved quickly to distract the girl while her friend and partner recovered from the dizzy spell that always came with the visions.

"I'm… not sure." Eon muttered, thinking back. The vision had been a little distorted, especially towards the end of it, which was different to the usual clarity of his flashes into the future or the past of whatever triggered them. Eon had a good memory, however, and he always made it a point to commit whatever he saw to his mind, which gave him time to think later on. "You remember how Tattletale said Triggers are always traumatic?"

"Yeah." Shadow nodded, looking miserable. "I hate to think that Ta- Swarm when through one."

"I think I saw her Trigger." He told her. "She… she was shoved in a locker full of waste. I'm not sure how long she was in there, I think she passed out after a while."

"Or you only saw up to her Trigger. Tattletale said people pass out when it happens." Shadow pointed out with a scowl. "Damn. How the hell could that happen? I would've thought schools would be better than that."

"I'd assume so as well." Eon growled. "It's not like we could bring it up, though. People don't talk about their Triggers."

"Invisibility." Eon paused mid-step, looking down at his friend. "We can make ourselves invisible and sneak about the school tomorrow, try and see what's going on."

"We're not going to be able to look at records, you know." Shadow scoffed.

"Of course I know that. If we had Porygon here, I might try for it, or Rotom, but not as us. But we can still sneak around the school a bit and see what's going on in there, and what it's like for Swarm." Shadow huffed angrily. "I don't like that she's so dismissive of her work."

"Neither do I." Eon admitted. "Fine. Would you be alright to go in on your own, Shadow? You're smaller than me, so you could slip around easier. Not to mention the tails."

"Yeah, we probably don't want to accidentally curse most the school by them stepping on your tails." Shadow snorted. "Or trip them up, or something. But yeah, I can do it. Not sure if I can hold an invisibility-inaudibility cloak for that long, but I can do camouflage and stay in the shadows or something."

"Either way, maybe don't stop about for too long, so that you don't end up straining yourself and losing the cloak." Eon suggested. "We don't want to get caught."

"No, I'd rather our public debut was doing something cool, thanks." Shadow agreed. "I'll slip in a bit after the big morning rush- there's gotta be one of those, right?- and snoop around for a bit. I'm sure I can find something."

"Give it a bit more time, maybe in a couple of days. We need to set up first. After that, then as long as you're careful you can go." He sighed. "Now c'mon, let's get back and catch a few hours of sleep before tomorrow."

"Alright." They walked in silence until they were almost in the clearing. "Hey Eon?"

"Mh?"

"Are you alright? You don't normally have many visions super-close, do you? Has something happened?"

"Maybe it's just because we're on another world, Shadow." Eon shrugged, the movement rippling, and ducked under the branches. "Remember we were told that the Scream worked more often in the past than in the future, so maybe it's something similar."

"I hope so. They're useful, but they can be a pain and really distracting."

"Don't I know it, little pix."

* * *

Later that afternoon, around seven, Taylor met up with the two of them outside the shop. She was in costume, and had slipped carefully into an alleyway a few minutes before, waiting for her teammates to show up. Both of them arrived after about ten minutes, Eon under an invisibility-inaudibility illusion set and Shadow hidden by a change in colour to something far darker than her normal orange-red-and-cream colour scheme.

"Ready to go, Swarm?" Shadow grinned, patting her leg in greeting.

"As ready as I can be." She nodded with a slight smile. "What's the plan?"

"Mostly just run about, see if we can catch anything." Eon explained, curling his tails over his back with an unhappy look at the ground. "I'd like to see if we can find a few of these gang hideouts too, maybe some of those… heck, what're they called? The one Lung ran."

"ABB?"

"Yeah, ABB. They don't have their dragon around, so now would be a good time to hit them, I think."

"Maybe." Swarm nodded. "What's that?" She pointed. Eon looked backwards at the brown bag he had attached carefully to his back.

"Treasure Bag." He told her. "Anything we might grab from gang dens can go in here. That's the normal rules of engagement back home when dealing with criminals. I've got paper in here too, I brought some with us when we came, so we can write a note to the local police if we find anything that needs to be handed in."

"That's fair." She bit her lip. "I have to admit, I'm a little nervous about just… _taking_ the money, though. I mean… a lot of it's probably stolen, or drug money, or something."

"True, but we can't really trace any paper or coin back to people, can we?" Eon reasoned. "We'll make sure any of those plastic things make their way to the police as well, I'm sure they can find the owners of the things."

"Yeah, probably." Swarm inhaled deeply, then let out a sharp breath. "So, are we going undercover, or what?"

"Invisible." Eon told her. "I figured you wouldn't want people staring at us while we're running around."

"It'll happen eventually, but thank you." She said sincerely. "What do I need to do?"

"Just stay close and quiet, that's all. It's not too difficult to cloak more than one person, I do it with Shadow all the time, but it is a bit of a strain if I need to keep adjusting things to make sure no-one notices."

"What about you, Shadow?" The Cape asked the Vulpix, who was wandering the alley and sniffing the air.

"I'm going camouflage, so I'll be in charge of scouting in front of us a bit." She explained, fiddling with her illusion slightly as she did so and coming out at a slightly better blend of black and grey that hid her better in the still fading twilight. "When you're able to see and hear more with your bugs, I'll hand that job over to you, but right now it's easier for me to do it."

"That's fair. Be careful." Swarm reached behind her into the compartment she'd fashion into the back of her costume, taking out a pair of burner phones. "Here, I went and grabbed a few today after school. Cost a bit, but I can handle it." Eon smiled, taking the phone gently in a psychic grip- which made Taylor flinch, having forgotten that particular power- and looking at it for a moment before putting it in his bag.

"Thank you, Swarm. That's helpful, I'd forgotten that we might need these and don't have any money to get them right now anyway." Eon said. "We'll pay you back soon enough, I'm sure."

"Yeah." Swarm nodded. "I hope so."

"Come on." Eon straightened, waving his tails. "We're cloaked. Shadow, off you go. We'll be right behind you."

"Got it, Eon." The camouflaged form of the Vulpix nodded in the fading light, then vanished out of the alleyway in a blur. Eon and Swarm followed soon after, completely invisible, watching the dark form dart in and out of shadows, never staying in one place for very long and avoiding every beam of light with careful expertise. Swarm kept watching with her bugs, twitching every time someone got too close to Shadow, and only relaxing when they moved away.

"Calm down." Eon murmured. "Shadow's trained for this sort of stuff. She's good enough even normally, let alone in black and grey. She'll be fine."

"I have to admit, I wouldn't expect her to be good at stealth," Swarm admitted lowly. "Given how enthusiastic she is."

"She always claims it's a good way to throw opponents off. If you're loud and bouncy, you couldn't possibly be a spy of any kind, because she draws too much attention." Eon chuckled. "I think she just wanted to prove to me that she could be serious if she wanted to be."

"Well, she does it really well." She smiled. "I wonder if we'll find something."

"Somehow I don't doubt it."

* * *

In the end, it only took a half an hour for them to stumble across trouble.

"A mugging." Shadow explained lowly, having spotted it in the alleyway and darted back to where she knew they were to explain. "Only one person, with a knife. The girl he's after is on the ground right now, and the guy smells kinda funny."

"He might be a Merchant, they're normally drugged up on something." Swarm advised.

"How do we handle this?" Eon asked.

"Swarm can distract him with bugs. Try not to have him close his eyes, I'm gonna try and Hypnosis him. Then we can call it in." Shadow explained.

"Can you manage that, Swarm?"

"Yeah, I can." The bug user straightened. "Not as bad as Lung, at least." Eon snorted.

"No, I suppose not. Go on, begin. I'll drop our illusions once we get into the alley more." Swarm nodded, gathering her bugs, while Shadow darted back into the mouth of the alleyway, where the mugging was taking place. A moment later, a spider crawled up his leg and bit down, making him yelp loudly and jump, holding his leg and nearly stabbing himself in the process. A small army of bugs appeared and swarmed him, keeping the man distracted while the woman carefully stood and backed away. Shadow crept forwards, dropping her illusion of dark colours, and grinned widely, setting up her attack.

"Hi there!"

"Gah!" The man jumped, eyes suddenly wide, as the bugs backed off. "Oh fuck, a… Cape…" Shadow kept eye contact with the would-be mugger as he began swaying, then fell over asleep. Swarm moved her bugs away, back into the shade of the alley, and Shadow leaned forward, cancelling her attack.

"Huh. That was easier than I expected. Normally takes longer than that." She mused.

"It was well done, though." Eon complemented, both of her team mates arriving and dropping into view. "Good job working together." The Ninetales stepped around the man towards the woman he'd tried to mug. "Are you alright, ma'am?"

"I'll be fine." She said, looking somewhat shaky and gripping her purse. "Thank you for your help."

"We were in the area, and it's what we do." Eon smiled, offering her his paw. "I'm Eon, the little one in Shadow and that's Swarm back there." He turned his head, nodding to each of them in turn. "Swarm, you calling this in?"

"Will do, Eon." The bug Cape nodded, taking out her phone. Eon and Shadow both ignored her quiet report into the device, instead giving the woman an once-over.

"He didn't hurt you at all, did he?" Shadow asked quickly, padding over.

"No, I'm fine." She repeated. "Thank you for your help."

"Like Eon said, it's no trouble." The little Vulpix grinned. "Hey, Eon, Swarm, what's actually the procedure for this? We stick around and talk to the police, right?"

"Presumably."

"We'll all have to give statements, most likely." The woman put in. "Whenever they get here."

"They're on their way, they said." Swarm told them, closing the phone and storing it. "I'll keep an eye out, though."

"Thank you, Swarm." Eon nodded. He glanced down at the mugger, sniffing a few times. "I think you were right, by the way. He's definitely on _something_. Several somethings, if I had to guess."

"Merchants." The bug user sighed. "They're annoying."

"From what you've said, all of the gangs can be annoying."

"True." She snorted. All four of them milled around for a moment, Eon and Swarm idly talking while Shadow and the woman stayed quiet, until Swarm looked towards the entrance of the alley. "They're here, or they will be in a moment." The sharp ears of both vulpines picked up the whine of the engine and sirens, and Eon lead the way out. Shadow lingered at the very back, watching the Merchant carefully, while the police stepped out of the car. They immediately stared at Eon, who seated himself carefully on the ground and swept his tails around his paws, but professionalism quickly took over and they started interviewing the four. Swarm lead them over to the knocked out mugger, who was quickly woken and arrested. Everyone went their own ways minutes later, the trio of heroes ducking back into the alleyway to set everything back up.

"That was surprisingly quick." Eon noted, shaking his head.

"Yeah, back home the officers practically ask for a step by step tour of the entire dungeon chase." Shadow grumbled.

"A lot of the officers here are kind of overworked." Swarm told them. "And it's just one mugger, so they probably weren't too interested in getting a step by step. Besides, I think the four of us covered things pretty well, don't you?"

"Yeah, I guess." Eon gave Swarm a long look. "You did very well there, given that it was your first time really working with us." She shrugged.

"I just followed Shadow's plan." She demurred, embarrassed.

"Either way, you did well." Eon looked back at Shadow, whose fur was now dark again. "Come on, let's get moving again. Maybe we can hit a supply and get your money for pay back."

"That'd be nice. Thank you."

"You're our team mate now, it's our job." Shadow grinned, before fading into the background and making her way out of the alley.

* * *

In total, the group found another two muggings and a gang house that they were fairly sure belonged to the ABB in the four hours they decided to patrol.

"What do we do about the gang building?" Swarm asked softly, as all three perched on a rooftop overlooking it.

"Can you tell how many people are in there right now?" Eon asked in response. "We can decide then." Swarm went silent for a few minutes directing her bugs around, then nodded.

"There's seven guys in there, all of them are in one room, except for one, who's in the same room as the money, drugs and weapons." She told him. "The rest are in the next room over."

"Shadow, could you slip into there, grab things and get out again?"

"I could do that, no problem. The main thing would be carrying stuff, I don't think I can managed properly with the bag." She gave the building another look. "Let's see…"

"I could go in, I suppose." Eon mused idly. "You two could stay hidden well enough, and I can do my double-cloak trick and avoid just about everyone."

"Or we could just leave it." Swarm suggested nervously. "I mean, I know Lung's not around, but they still have Oni Lee, and he's pretty dangerous." Eon looked up at her, slowly moving his tails.

"No-one would notice me." He promised. "We'd be safe." All three of them stayed still for a moment, then Shadow stepped back, acknowledging that this argument was between the two others.

"Be safe, and be quick, please." She finally requested, backing down and crouching next to Shadow.

"I will." Eon flicked his tails, vanishing from sight, and silently made his way down to ground level. Sneaking around the corner of the building and finding a locked door, he sniffed around for a moment before frowning. Picking up a can with some mental effort, he threw it, making it clatter on the ground. There was the vague sound of voices talking within, before two of the gang members came outside, guns held at the ready. They walked straight out of the building, right past the cloaked Eon, who slipped inside with a suppressed snort. _Honestly,_ he thought to himself, quickly making his way through the building- apparently a remodelled warehouse, and almost _definitely_ not what the plans for the building would say it looked like- towards the money, _you didn't even think to leave someone standing in the doorway to make sure no-one could slip in? I mean, wouldn't have really worked with me anyway, but you'd think that people guarding the money stash would be a bit more vigilant, especially since their boss just got taken out._

Ignoring the idiocy of the ABB members, since all it was doing was making things easier for him, Eon sniffed the air as he walked, keeping to the walls and carefully curling his tails to make it less likely that someone would trip over him. Luckily, it appeared that the only two alert guards in the building had gone out of the door after Eon's distraction, since the Ninetales could hear people talking in one of the other rooms nearby. Nudging open the door that had the smell of paper money behind it, as well as similar drugs to the one the Merchants had apparently been on and a mess of unfamiliar scents, Eon put up another illusion that made the door appear shut, then pushed the door almost closed anyway just to be safe.

Then he turned around.

 _Wow._ Eon thought, slowly pacing around the outskirts of the pile. _That's an awful lot of money._ Deciding not to waste any more time, since he didn't think the guards would be distracted much longer, he began heaping some of the money into his bag, careful not to take enough to be noticed. A few times he stepped back, evaluating the pile, before he decided on the third time that he had enough money and that it wouldn't be quickly noticed. Closing the Bag psychically, Eon crept out of the room again, barely managing to close the door properly and dispel the illusion over it when a pair of males, quite young and obviously of Asian descent, came around the corner talking lowly in a language Eon didn't recognise. He pressed himself against the wall and moved along, sliding past the two, and bolted for the exit, making as little noise as possible so as not to strain the illusion too much.

The front door was closed, but not properly locked, Eon discovered, and after a few moments of messing with the handle the door opened, letting Eon make his way out. He pushed it closed behind him and ran back to the building his team mates were hiding on, dropping the illusion and putting back a much wider version once he was next to them.

"Did it go ok?" Shadow asked. "Swarm said she saw a couple of people leaving for a little while around the other side." Eon nodded.

"I caused a distraction to get in. They're really idiots, it looks like. I didn't count how much I got, but it was quite a lot. We'll have a proper look when we get back to the base." Swarm nodded, visibly relaxing, and glanced skywards.

"It's about midnight, I think, so do you want to head back or keep going?"

"Head back." Shadow decided, before Eon could even get a word in. "You didn't get much sleep last night anyway, I can tell, and while Eon and I are used to it from our explorations, you're not yet." Eon glared slightly at Shadow, making her shut up, before chuckling and nodding.

"I was thinking the same. We'll walk you back again tonight, then head back to the base ourselves and hide everything. I'll do a proper inventory tomorrow morning, then we can meet up tomorrow night for another patrol."

"Ok." Swarm agreed. All three of them stood and stretched, before heading back to the ground and making their way through the alleyways under the cover of the illusions. They didn't run into any more trouble, but a few blocks from her house Swarm stopped them. "I need to take the battery out of this phone, make sure it can't be tracked." She explained, pulling it from her pocket.

"We'll take it back to base with us as well. I'm hiding our stuff a little ways away, or at least some of it. Phones and stuff can go in one place, so even if they do get tracked no-one will find the rest of it, some of our money and stuff in another place, and the rest of it in a third." Eon told her. Swarm nodded, handing the pieces to him.

"That's clever."

"It's not exactly our first time roughing it, though we normally have access to the storage back home, which no-one in their right _or_ wrong minds would try and steal from. Same with the bank, but we can't access that on the field, so we hide things in camp when we have to." Eon smiled, putting them away. "Now come on, let's get back into your house. You need to get in before changing, right?"

"Yeah, but we have a little shed at the bottom of the garden that I've hidden a change of clothes in for absolute emergencies, just in case I get back and dad's still awake."

"You might want to leave a change of clothes with us as well, in case there's an emergency and you can't get home to change at all." Shadow opined. "Maybe you could make a spare costume too, and leave that at the base as well so if you need to costume up during the day you can just come to us. Or if this one gets damaged you have a spare that's easy enough to get to."

"It took me four months to make this costume, though."

"A lot of that was probably designing it, right? You know what you're doing this time, so it could be a lot faster." Swarm nodded.

"Yeah, that's true." She smiled at Shadow. "Alright, I'll start work on that… probably tomorrow. Thank you, and goodnight."

"Goodnight, Swarm." The trio parted, Shadow and Eon making their way back and watching as the Cape slipped through the fence and made her way into her house. They listened for a while, trying to see if anyone spoke from inside, but after hearing nothing for about five minutes they set off towards their own base, walking silently and carefully until they reached the city limits.

"That was… kinda fun." Shadow stated, looking up and left at Eon. "Don'tcha think?"

"It was." Eon agreed. "Different to our normal duties, that's for certain. And this city… it's a mess, sure, but it's an interesting mess. It might even be one we can clear up, at least a little."

"I'd like some help from our other team members if we went against some of the big ones, though." She said nervously. "Not just Swarm, but some of the ones from home too, like Vespiquen and Dragonite, or maybe someone like Mesprit and Uxie and Azelf if they were willing. Some of these guys are scary, and we're not really best suited for direct attack on our own."

"We can do it, though." Eon smirked. "Especially given your… _eccentric_ family tree." Shadow chuckled.

"I suppose, yeah." The little vulpine yawned, blinking. "Huh. That illusion must've took more energy than I realised."

"C'mon, pix." Eon said. "Let's get back and rest."

"No argument from me." She nodded, trotting beside him.

* * *

 **So, that's chapter five. Kinda a lot happened here, hopefully it was interesting enough for everyone, and hopefully you didn't get lost in what was happening.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 6.**

 **Schooling, sneaking, and speaking.**

* * *

Shadow slowly crept along the side of the building, keeping to the shadows as she did. She had an illusion up to change her colouring to a grey-black, making it much harder to see her through the darkness, and was being careful not to knock anyone or make too much noise.

"That's the place?" She muttered to herself, disgusted. "What a dump."

She'd managed to persuade Eon that she could handle the building herself, so he had stayed at their new base and worked on setting up the guards for it to keep it safe while they were gone. As a trade-off, Shadow was also going to try and get a bit of insight into the security of the place, so that she and Eon could sneak back in during one of the nights where they could have Taylor take a day off and snoop about to find something interesting.

Shadow's extremely good senses picked up the shrill ringing of a bell from inside the mess of a place across the street, and she paused, picking a moment where nothing was going on on the road to cloak herself and make a run for it. Stopping in the shadows of the building, she dropped the cloak and went back to the dark colour scheme, watching with interest as people began making their way in. From their talk with Tattletale the day before, she recognised that a number of them wore gang signs, and sighed softly at the obvious divide between groups.

Spotting a tall figure with long brown hair, Shadow immediately began tracking her movements, slowly inching her way around as she did. Taylor was wearing glasses now, the difference surprising but not incredible, and had her head down towards the floor. As she passed, Shadow listened closely, hearing jeers from just about every person, along with the high pitched giggling of a group of girls. One with red hair stepped from the group, and Taylor stiffened. A black skinned girl stepped up as well, and both of them began speaking to Taylor, the red head's body language mocking and the black girl's irate.

Cursing softly that she couldn't hear what was being said, Shadow weighed up her options for a moment, then cloaked fully and tracked closer to them.

"Honestly, Hebert, you shouldn't even be here." The red head smirked. "Just go away like the little girl you are."

"Fuck off, Emma." Taylor snapped, making Shadow's eyes widen. Apparently the girls were just as taken aback, and the group let Taylor pass by them. For a moment, Shadow thought that would be everything, but the black girl suddenly charged Taylor, aiming a punch at her back. Her new friend hit the ground hard, though her glasses seemed alright, and Shadow stifled a gasp.

"Watch your mouth, bitch." The black girl snarled, before turning to the crowd. "The fuck you all looking at?" The crowd quickly moved along, and Shadow had to do some careful dodging around them as they left. The red head, Emma, put her hand on the other's shoulder.

"Come on, Sophia, let's let Taylor cry in peace." She requested. "We might as well leave her with a little bit of dignity."

"Fine." Sophia and Emma wandered into the school, soon leaving the entire yard empty, aside from Taylor herself. Shadow looked around the area, then crept forwards and dropped her cloak.

"Taylor?" Shadow asked softly.

"Shadow?" The bug user seemed surprised. "What're you doing here? Where's Eon?"

"I was sneaking about, having a look around, and I spotted what was going on." She explained. "Eon's at the base, adding to the protections. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." She muttered, pushing herself up and rubbing her arms, where she'd scraped them in the fall. "I've had worse."

"Do you want to come back to base with me? You could skip today if you wanted." Shadow offered, stepping back a little and looking around again. Taylor looked down at her, then up at the school, biting her lip.

"You know what? Sure." She stood, fiddling with her backpack for a moment. "Let me go home first, dad'll have gone by now, and I'll grab some stuff. Fuck this place." She turned sharply, a few flies buzzing around her with irritation, and started off down the street. Shadow followed silently, cloaking herself as they hit the brighter main street and dropping into the alleyways as soon as she could.

"I'll meet you there." Shadow whispered, knowing Taylor would hear it. The brunette nodded, letting Shadow take off through the back streets towards Taylor's house, while the Cape herself stayed mostly on the better roads while going the same way.

Shadow ended up taking slightly longer than Taylor to get to the building; while the alleyways were faster, it was also easier for her to get lost and she'd ended up having to turn around a few times. She'd also had to be careful to stay in the shadows of the alley, keeping hidden and quiet to avoid people finding her, which made her own trip take a little while longer than Taylor's did. When she arrived, she found the back gate slightly ajar, so she slipped through there and nudged it closed behind her. The back door was almost wide open, and Shadow could hear the sounds of a single person moving within. Entering the house, she looked around curiously, smelling the scent of Taylor all over the place, as well as someone else who smelled similar to Taylor.

Shadow assumed that was her dad.

"Up here, Shadow!" Taylor called down the stairs. "Come on, no-one else is here."

"Coming!" She replied quietly, dropping her colour illusion fully as she bounced her way up the steps. "What's up?" She asked.

"I set some of my spiders to work on my second costume this morning." She explained. "Well, last night, technically. I made a little flap on my main costume for the badge, we can pin it on there and I don't _think_ it'll come off if we do, so I did that this morning before I left, then put them back onto the costume." Taylor lifted her full costume, now with a little flap on the front as she'd said, then folded it up and put it to one side. "They managed to do a lot of it overnight, but there's not much more on there now." She lifted up a piece of yellow-grey material, very different to the grey of her actual costume, and pulled at it a little while the spiders crawled across it, weaving. "I'll bring it with me and have them keep working on it, if that's ok." Taylor glanced over her shoulder at Shadow, who was sitting to one side and keenly watching the spiders move about.

"Yeah, that's fine." She smiled slightly. "Eon won't mind, and I don't either. Maybe you'll be able to pick up more spiders in the woods that you can use to weave it."

"Maybe, it was kind of good luck that I even found this many in the first place. It was winter when I got my powers, so spiders and other bugs were a bit hard to find and collect."

"Where do you put them, in those boxes?"

"The spiders, yeah. The other bugs go into jars and stuff, or I leave them outside but nearby. I mostly use them to feed the spiders, though. I let the bees and wasps and all them do whatever they want, and just call them to use when I go out."

"That makes sense. No need to mess with the ecosystem any more than people's powers seem to already." Shadow smiled. "Are you using that bag, by the way?" Taylor nodded.

"Yeah. I'll just take all my stuff out of it and put some clothes and things in to bring with me. Am I putting on my costume?"

"If you want. Just I can't do invisibility for us both for a long time, so we'll be walking out of the city in plain view."

"No costume, then." Taylor decided. She went over to her bed and turned the back over, letting all her books fall into a pile, before folding the costume and putting it in. The rest of the clothes she was bringing went on top of it, and the piece of the new costume went over that, spiders still crawling back and forth on it. "Alright, let's go." Shadow stood and turned, heading quickly down the stairs and out of the door.

"Once Eon's done with everything back at base, we'll have to try and persuade him to do another patrol." She said.

"What, now?"

"Yeah." She flicked her tails back and forth while Taylor locked the door behind them. "I mean, Eon can do the cloak for you and him just as well in the day as he can in the night, though my normal scouting cloak would be a bit awkward since it's brighter, but I can make do. Don't think I can hold a full invisibility-inaudibility cloak for that long, but I can definitely fiddle with my normal stuff enough to hide pretty well." As she spoke, Shadow rippled back into the mentioned colours, hidden surprisingly well even in the daylight, and the two stepped out of the back yard together.

"Out of curiosity, Shadow, why were you even at Winslow?" Taylor asked quietly as they walked.

"Curious about the school, wanted to have a look round." She shrugged. "You seemed bored with the place and didn't care much the other night, so I wanted to know a bit more. Eon wanted to take a look-see too, but I was gonna go first and look during the day, since I'm smaller so it's less likely someone would notice me. Plus Eon's tails are kinda long, so it'd be harder for him to get around people without them stepping on them. I was gonna get a handle on the security and all that-" Taylor barked out a laugh.

" _What_ security? I don't think any of the cameras in that building have worked since Scion showed up. They probably didn't work before then, either."

"It's that bad?" Shadow raised an eyebrow at her, peering out of the shadows of the building she was next to.

"It's pretty bad. I don't even think they lock the doors at night, it's that bad." She snorted. "Then again, there's nothing in the damn place that'd be worth stealing anyway, so they probably feel secure enough not to bother."

"That's... sad." She mused. "Is this city really that big of a mess?"

"There's gangs everywhere, the PRT and Protectorate barely help out with it all where it matters, and the city's too poor to really try and fix it up." Taylor said bluntly. "Yes, it's that much of a mess."

"Then I guess we've gotta clean it up, then, haven't we?" Shadow smirked. "Pretty sure we can do that. We're powerful, after all." Taylor laughed quietly, turning into an alleyway they both knew was abandoned and cutting across the city.

"Yeah. I suppose we are, aren't we?" She smiled slightly at the Vulpix. "Thanks, Shadow."

"No problem, Taylor." They walked quietly together for a half hour longer, before ducking into the woods near the base. "Y'know, we're gonna need to tell Eon why you're here."

"Mm."

"Want me to do it?"

"No, it's ok. I should probably tell you what's going on there anyway. You're my teammates- and besides, if I end up skipping out again, I'd be coming to you anyway." Taylor shrugged, mindful of the bag on her back, as Shadow dropped out of her darkening illusion, going back to her normal orange-red-cream colouring and shaking herself.

"That always feels weird to do, like ink... anyway, that's fine. I don't mind, and Eon won't either, I don't think. We can do some daytime patrols when you're not at school, after all."

"That... could be fun." She said slowly. "Won't it be awkward for you, though? I mean, everyone'd stare at you, wouldn't they?"

"Eh, 'snot like we aren't used to it." Shadow shrugged, flicking her tails. "Eon especially, since he's shiny and was new and was kinda weird because of the whole amnesia thing, but I got a few as well for being his teammate. Then we got kinda famous, and it got a bit more looks from people." She spotted Taylor's confusion, and grinned. "I don't look all that powerful, in the end. I'm mostly good because of my family tree- it's a bit of a weird mess, to be honest. I have a lot of different Pokemon lines in my family, and it gives me access to some kinda cool stuff. Which is good, 'cause it means I can hold my own in trouble, and I've been tutoring Eon in some of them as well. They can be _really_ powerful, Ninetales, but a Vulpix is just as good, at least when you've got a lot of stuff to use."

"And you're a lot smaller, which helps with things like just now, I suppose." Taylor mused, before flinching heavily. "Um, Shadow, maybe we should go a different way. Like back to the city. We could wait for Eon there, right?"

"I mean, I guess, but why?" She asked, cocking her head. "The base is just this way, it's not that far, we can just go there and wait with Eon." She trotted past Taylor, then recoiled. "Whoa! That..."

"Yeah. Can we just go another way, please?" Taylor asked nervously, the bugs in the air around her buzzing aggravatedly.

"Taylor, it's just the repulsion illusion. Y'know, the one Eon mentioned yesterday?" As she spoke, Shadow could feel the effects of the illusion lessening, not able to take proper effect now that she recognised what it was. "There's nothing dangerous actually here... well, aside from us, I suppose. C'mon, let's just go get to Eon, then we can chat for a bit and go on patrol later this afternoon or something." Shadow meandered at the border of the illusion for a few moments, while Taylor gathered up her courage to pass by.

"Whoa." She muttered, shivering. "That's... really weird. Like... I didn't want to pass until you told me what it is." She glanced around, her bugs moving as she did. "It _still_ feels like something's waiting to jump out at me."

"Yeah, that's the effects of the field." Shadow grinned. "You get used to it after a while in them. Plus once we get farther in, the feeling goes away."

"Why?" Taylor asked, braving another few steps. "Wouldn't it make sense for the feeling of doom to get stronger the closer you get to the base?"

"Eon _does_ set it up like that. He'll do it later, probably, but he always keys me into things like this."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that I'm immune to the effects after a certain distance." She explained, smiling up. "He'll add you as well, obviously. It's a bonus of the keystone thing he does. Most of the times illusions don't work like that. I think it's a Ninetales thing, and Zoroark have the ability to put only one person under a full illusion." Shadow shrugged. "I dunno how it works. I just learn my illusions from Eon, and I'll mess with them as I need to."

"That's fair enough, I guess." Taylor nodded. "I mean, I don't exactly know how my powers work, after all, and I doubt most people do."

"That's not necessarily a bad thing, but you should definitely try and learn as much about your abilities as possible so you can use them well." Eon put in, appearing from the trees with a slight rustle of leaves. "Otherwise you might end up using your powers ineffectively, which can _really_ suck when it comes down to it."

"Hey Eon!" Shadow grinned, bouncing over to him. "Where'd you come from? Why're you here?"

"I was just setting some of the other things up, and heard both of you run into the repulsion illusion." He shrugged. "I thought that I'd come say hello." He curled a tail around Shadow, tapping her on the nose. "Y'know, when I said _'look around the school for cameras and interesting things'_ I didn't mean _'find and kidnap Taylor from school'_ , Shadow."

"I didn't _mean_ to!" She defended sharply. "Taylor was getting picked on, so I went and asked if she was ok, then asked if she wanted to skip. She said yeah." Eon looked up at Taylor, who fidgeted. There were a few red scrapes along the side of her face from her fall, and a couple on the palms of her hands, and he nodded.

"That's fine. I was just wondering." He grinned. "So, what's the plan now that you've borrowed Taylor for the day, Shadow?"

"I dunno." Shadow shrugged. "Taylor's gonna work more on her costume, I think. And she brought some stuff to leave here with us."

"Then I guess we'll be making some storage places for them, won't we?" The Ninetales said, turning. "I've just finished fine tuning everything on the illusion front. I borrowed a few Zoroark methods, so I don't need to be too close to the illusions to be powering them, which is good."

"Cool. I didn't know you could do that." The Vulpix looked up at him with some awe. "You _are_ going to teach me to do that, right?"

"Eventually, when you're got some more skill with your illusions." Eon's tone turned slightly teasing. "After all, you can't do invisibility right yet, and _that's_ fairly simple."

"I can do it!" Shadow replied sharply. "Just not for very long. It's hard." Eon patted her head.

"You'll get there, Shadow." He told her. "Just keep practising." Shadow frowned, and a moment later the air rippled slightly.

"Ok!" The apparently empty space where she had been said cheerfully. Eon sighed, looking up at Taylor, who hid a grin behind her hand and looked away.

"Why yes, she _is_ like this often." He groaned tiredly. "I swear, after a year and a half you'd think I'd've either gotten used to it or she'd've grown out of it, but _nope!_ "

"I like it." Taylor said quietly. "It's funny. Nice, considering…" She trailed off. Eon waited politely for a moment to see if she was going to continue, then coughed.

"Well, it'll probably get annoying eventually. I'm not sure when that happened for me, but possibly it was after Shadow walked blindly into the end of a dungeon after we'd just fought through multiple floors, making jokes about it not getting worse, before making a rather rude one and causing the Mightyena that'd made the place their territory to get offended and jump us." He groaned. "And Mightyena look like this, and there were about six of them." The illusion of the large-ish black-and-grey hyena Pokemon flickered into being, making Taylor glance over it and wince.

"Yeah, that looks a bit scary."

"I said I was _sorry!_ " Shadow barked, reappearing and slashing at the Mightyena illusion with a claw. " _You're_ the one who keeps bringing it up!"

"Because you started it, silly!" He grumbled, swiping playfully at her. "Anyway, come on, we're here. Let Taylor settle down, you're coming to help me grab some stuff to make some boxes for Taylor to leave her things in."

"No problem." Shadow grinned up at the much taller girl. "You'll be ok on your own, right?"

"I'll be fine." Taylor said awkwardly, looking around the clearing they'd just entered. "You've said no-one can get in here, and I've got my bugs if something does happen. I'll just keep my spiders working on my costume."

"Don't forget that you can call us if you need help with something, Taylor." Eon reminded her, watching her carefully as she moved to sit next to the willow tree that the base they'd created was hidden under, putting her bag on the ground next to her and pulling out the spider-covered cloth.

"I- right." She smiled. "Sure. I'll keep some flying bugs around that I can use to get you if you're needed. There's enough bugs in the area that I should be able to find you easily." Eon nodded, then followed Shadow, who'd already run off into the forest to find some bits that they could use.

* * *

"Think this is enough?" Shadow asked, dropping a few more branches of willowy wood onto the pile the two had been building.

"Probably." Eon shrugged. "We don't really need that much space, so this should be fine after a bit of work."

"Should we take it back, then? We could work on it in the base, or near it." Eon gazed at Shadow, evaluative.

"You just want to be close to Taylor, don't you?" He asked gently. She chuckled, pawing at the ground.

"A bit, yeah. I'm pretty sure she's been getting picked on a lot worse than I saw earlier. I don't really want her to be on her own." Eon huffed.

"I doubt she'd be in trouble out here, it's pretty safe and remote, but I get your meaning. C'mon, pix, let's get moving." Carefully, the two of them lifted the entire pile of wood with a psychic grip, moving it in the direction of the den they'd made.

"Wow, that's a lot of branches." Taylor mused, looking up from the work her spiders were doing. It was a little larger than it had been before, which made sense given how few spiders she had to work with, but looked like it was doing well.

"We're hoping it'll be enough to make a fairly large storage box for you to leave your clothes and stuff in." Eon told her. "I'll grab more and make a safety box as well, so I can hide the money and other stuff a little farther away from here, which _should_ let me drop some more protections on it that I can't really do around the base, unless I don't want anyone to find it ever."

"… You know, that still makes it sound like some kind of weird fantasy book." Taylor said softly, after a few moments of private thought. "You can cast illusion spells and make protections out of them… it's not really what I would've expected with illusions. I'd've thought that you could only make them close to you." She snorted. "Then again, this isn't exactly how I thought I'd begin my superhero career, either."

"I suppose not." Eon grinned. "And you'd be right about the illusion thing. While I don't really know how the stones work, they basically act as a repeater for the illusion. I create the illusion while I'm here, and these stones repeat the illusion again and again, even when I'm not around, to basically make it as permanent as they can hold a charge for."

"Zoroark are weird." Shadow observed, to nods. Taylor sighed slightly, then glanced upwards through a gap in the trees.

"I think it's about… ten, eleven o'clock right now?" She guessed. "So I'd like to go and get some food soon enough, then maybe we could all patrol together a bit after that?" Her voice had a hopeful tinge to it in the end, and Eon thought it over for a minute before nodding.

"Sure, we can do that. I never did get around to counting that money we… _'acquired'_ yesterday, but you can take some of that and get… well, whatever you want, to be honest." Eon licked his lips. "Maybe get us something as well. Dunno what's sold in this city, but we could probably find something."

"I could do that, sure." Taylor smiled a little. "Where's the money? I'll take a look at that for you if you'd like. I'm not doing much aside from staring at the spiders, and they can direct themselves."

"I left it in the den for now." Eon explained, lifting two branches in his grasp and knotting them together. Shadow did the same, making the frame of a base to their box, and frowned heavily as she fiddled with it to let her grasp a third, weaving it in. "It's safe enough in there, after all, since no-one but us can find it. I'm... pretty sure the phones can't be tracked, they're both off and I took the batteries out, but I put them a little further away from here just in case."

"Alright." Taylor pushed herself off the ground, stretching, before ducking under the willow tree Eon gestured to and crawling into the elegantly woven box-house. "It's nice in here," she called out to them, looking around.

It hadn't exactly been made with the almost six foot tall human in mind, so Taylor found herself ducking somewhat to make her way around, but it was still over five feet high, reaching a little over six in the centre of the domed top. It was very large too, surprisingly so given that it was hidden under a tree, but Taylor had the suspicion that it was mostly, or at the very least _partly_ , underground, which would make sense. There was a bit at the back that was lower down than the rest, which held a large tangle of leaves and fluff of some kind. Taylor poked it experimentally, finding that it felt a bit like wool, which she thought was odd, but didn't question. The rest of the upper part of the room was made up of empty space, and a trio of boxes along the left-hand wall. It felt a little sad, but Eon and Shadow had only been there for a few days.

Taylor privately contemplated making a blanket or something to put in the room so that it didn't look so empty.

Going over to the boxes on the side, she carefully lifted the first one, peering inside it with the light streaming from the gaps in the walls and the doorway, spotting after a moment the paper money bundled in there.

"Is this all of it?" She shouted out, closing the lid on the box and looking speculatively at it for a moment.

"It's all in one box, yes!" Eon called back. "Do you need help bringing it out?"

"I think I can manage!" Taylor told him, grabbing the sides of the boxes using the slightly stuck-out handles on there and half carrying, half dragging it out of the den and into the clearing proper. "That's a bit heavier than I was expecting."

"I did pick up quite a lot of money, though I'm not sure exactly how many of the bundles, or how much those bundles were. I just picked a few with different numbers on them and tried not to make it look obvious that they'd been robbed." Eon told her, carefully continuing the weaving with Shadow. The thing had already become a small tray, which impressed Taylor for a few moments as she stopped to watch.

"You know, there's the new Cape in the Bay called Parian." Taylor said idly. "She'd probably find what you do quite interesting."

"Oh?" Shadow cocked her head, then froze as it caused the structure to wobble. "Why's that?"

"She's apparently some kind of cloth kinetic. Her debut involved giant teddy bears, I heard."

"That _is_ neat." Shadow said approvingly, wagging her tails. "I want to go see that. Does she do shows?"

"I think she makes costumes for Parahumans…" Taylor facepalmed. "Which I could do for this second one rather than do it myself. Stupid." Eon and Shadow barked out a laugh.

"Doing it yourself has an element of secrecy to it, though." Eon pointed out. "But we could go and talk to her sometime, I think. Perhaps she'd be willing to buy some spider silk at a very cheap price, compared to the normal market?"

"Is that legal?"

"Does it matter?" Shadow retorted. "We nicked that money from the ABB, so selling spider silk to this Parian Cape is at least more legal than _that_ , right?"

"True." Taylor accepted. "I'll have to see if I can find her contact information somewhere. We can make an offer that way." She looked down at the box, pulling the lid off again. "Not that we'll need the money for a while, at least. Nice to have it legally, but eh." Pulling the bundles out in large stacks, she paused for a moment. "This might take a while to count."

* * *

A few hours later, Taylor had finished totalling up the money they'd acquired, and the two foxes had completed the box. They'd carefully left it by the side of the den under the willow tree, Eon explaining to Taylor that they'd move it in later when she'd given them a curious look.

"Christ." The bug controller sighed sharply, staring at the pile of money. "That's a little more than _ten thousand dollars_ there."

"That's… a lot." Shadow blinked. "Huh."

"Yeah." Taylor shook her head, piling it back into the wooden box again, keeping about fifty dollars on the side, and hefted the lid back onto the top again. "Well, at least we have a fair bit on money to use. Want to go and get lunch? There's a burger place that's quite nice, and fairly cheap as well, I've been a few times before."

"Sounds like a good idea." Eon nodded. "Let's put the box back in the den, and move your one in while we're at it. Can you sort your clothes and things yourself?"

"Sure." Taylor lifted her backpack from where it had been sitting for the last five or so hours, heading over to the box and taking the lid off. For a minute she just looked, then pulled everything out of her bag and dropped it in there, only pausing to make sure it stayed folded and somewhat neat. "I'll fix that later, after we get those burgers. How are you two coming?"

"We'll be in human illusions." Eon explained. "Invisible, some inaudibility, since we'll still need to talk to you and others at some point, but we'll have human images walking next to you that we can use to look normal."

"And eating?"

"We'll just slip into some corner somewhere and eat it, of course." Eon smiled at her. "Don't worry, it'll go fine. Bring your costume too, we could slip out on a patrol too if you'd like." Taylor smiled a bit wider at that.

"Sure. I'm a bit worried about doing it in daylight, but we've already debuted yesterday night, so I'm sure we're online already. I was going to look in Computer Science, but…" She shrugged, unbothered. "But it's not like it wouldn't be interesting."

"We'll be stared at quite a bit." Eon warned.

"I get stared at all the time in school, along with the accompanying gossip. I'm used to it." Taylor turned and started to pull the box of money back into the den, which Eon moved to help with after a moment of startled contemplation, while Shadow carefully used her own budding power to take Taylor's things in for her.

"When we go on patrol, we'll arrange to leave your bag somewhere we can find it again." Eon said, after they'd put the box back on the side and placed Taylor's own next to it. "If you want to try the more dangerous method, we can go invisible and leave it in your back yard before we patrol, but it might get spotted if your father get's back before you do."

"I… think that might be the best option, still." She decided slowly. "Dad… tends to work late. The Docks are a mess, and he's always trying really hard to keep his people in jobs… and he never really got over mom dying, either." Her voice was a lot quieter at the end, and Shadow nuzzled into her hip in sympathy.

"I see…" Eon quietly muttered, plotting mentally. "So, burgers and a patrol, then?" He continued, changing the subject.

"Sure." Taylor smiled, picking up her bag again and checking on her costume, before looking at the spiders. "I'll take these with me as well, so they can keep working, and I'll stop into my house and put them away when we leave for patrol."

"Alright." The three of them made their way back out, then paused, looking at the money.

"Huh."

"Huh indeed, Shadow." Eon frowned.

"Aren't those the same type of badges you have, Eon?" Taylor checked, pulling a couple of flies from the area and having them lift up one of said badges. "It _looks_ the same, anyway."

"It is the same. Turn it?" The badge was turned, and Eon took it carefully in his psychic grasp, letting the flies fly away. "See, it's got _Inari_ carved into the back, here. It's in footprint runes, which is the traditional sort of written language for us, but it's the same as the symbols on ours." To prove it, Shadow took her badge off her scarf and held it up next to it, letting Taylor see that they were identical. "I assume it's for you."

"Why's there two, then?"

"One for each costume?" Shadow suggested, pinning hers back on. "Would make sense. One on the costume you keep at home, one for the costume you leave here. Then you wouldn't have to worry about taking it off to put it on the other costume, or putting it in your pocket and forgetting about it and getting outed."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Taylor nodded. "Hang on, let me pin one on this… should I leave the other here?"

"I'll put it in with your other stuff for you." Shadow offered, picking it up and trotting back into the base. Taylor crouched down, opening her bag again and unfolding her costume to pin the badge onto the flap she'd made, before putting it all away along with the money that Eon handed her a moment after and calling her spiders and their weaving to her.

"Right. Let's go get burgers, then we'll go have some fun." Taylor grinned, letting Eon lead the way.

* * *

 **So, chapter six. Thing's are happening, just not in this particular chapter. Soon things can pick up, and all will be fun again!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 7.**

 **Burgers, babbling, and banking.**

* * *

Taylor carefully slipped out of Fugly Bobs carrying three take-away bags full of burgers and fries, joining the pair waiting outside for her.

"All done?" The man asked. He looked to be about nineteen, just over six feet tall with wiry muscles, dyed light blue hair and grey eyes. He looked slightly down at her, a tiny smile on his face, making her grin in return.

"Yeah. Three burgers and a lot of fries." She nodded, holding up the bags.

"C'mon, let's go find a place to eat, yeah?" The other girl of the trio bounced, arms folded under her chest and a wide, beaming grin on her face. She was more tanned than her male friend, looked to be around seventeen, and was much shorter than both her friends, only a little above five feet. Her hair was a vibrant red that looked almost bloody, and sparkling blue eyes darted about with excitement.

"We can go back to my place." Taylor offered, nodding to her. "It's not far, and I could do with putting my bag away anyway."

"Lead the way." The man told her, grasping the bouncing girl's shoulder to make her stand still. Taylor smiled at the display and nodded, turning on the spot and walking back past the burger store down the Boardwalk, planning on dropping into a few alleyways to make the trip shorter. Both of her friends followed, carefully slipping through the large crowds with a fluid ease, the crowds shifting unconsciously to avoid knocking into them, which she noticed with a slight smile.

Dropping into an alleyway, she went about half way through before stopping and turning to her friends, looking around with her bugs as she did so.

"It's empty." She told them, holding out two of the three bags. Both of them sagged in relief, before flickering and vanishing, Eon and Shadow flickering out of invisibility a second after.

"Thank Arceus for that." Eon huffed, shaking himself and examining the floor, before picking a spot that was marginally less dirty than the rest of the area to sit down on. "That was far more stressful than I was expecting it to be."

"Are you alright?" Taylor checked.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Eon flicked his tails, waving her off. "I could do with a bit of rest, and maybe a reminder next time I recommend trying to hold two Pokemon invisible and mostly inaudible while projecting two humans at the same time, but I'll be fine to patrol, if that's what you're asking."

"Well, I was more worried about you, but that's good too." Taylor admitted, as the Ninetales lifted the bags out of her grip and handed Shadow one of them. "Are you just going to go invisible for the rest of the trip back to mine, then?"

"That would probably be best." He nodded, as Shadow opened her bad and sniffed at it. "Way less strain than trying to hold all six of them at once." He sighed, lifting the burger from the bag. " _Way_ less."

"I need to practise cloaking more." Shadow decided, through a mouthful of fries. "Pretty sure that'd make it easier, right?"

"It'd help, sure." Eon agreed, taking a cautious bite from his burger. "That's really nice, actually."

"I wouldn't recommend eating them too often," Taylor cautioned, through her own bite, "The stuff's known as _'heart attack in a bun'_ for a reason. Especially some of the bigger stuff. There's so much fat and grease that it's ridiculous."

"Nice on occasion, though." The three sat silently for a little while, just eating their way through the take-out, before Taylor hummed.

"Y'know, I've always been ok at cooking." She said slowly. "So maybe on some afternoons when dad's not around you guys could spend some time at mine. We'd have to listen out a bit, I guess, so that you don't get caught, but it'd be kinda fun, I think."

"Have you still not said anything to your father yet?" Eon asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I got in late last night and the night before, and I didn't have the time this morning or yesterday." She shrugged. "Plus, well, I've been a Cape for a pretty long time now- four months- and I haven't said anything to him before now. It makes me feel… a little awkward, I guess, about bringing it up."

"But if you _do_ tell your father, he might be able to help cover for you in things. Like if you need the day of school for Cape business, he'd be able to phone you in as sick instead of you just skipping like you did today. And we'd be able to come over your house more easily that way. Show up under an illusion, and we could drop it as soon as we get into your house, without needing to worry about listening out for your father showing up." Eon told her. Taylor frowned, biting her lip for a few moments, then nodding and taking the final bite of her burger and working her way through some of the fries.

"I'll… have to find a good time to talk about it." She finally said slowly. "Maybe a weekend, or a Friday afternoon where there's plenty of time for him to get used to it." Eon gave a nod, leaving it at that.

"So, are we gonna start moving?" Shadow's voice made both of them look down, where the smaller Vulpix was balancing the balled up paper bag on the end of her nose, sitting perfectly still. She'd barely moved even asking her question, though the ball wobbled for a moment before she stilled again.

"Are you finished _already_?" Eon blinked, a few fries hovering in midair. "Where did it all _go_?"

"I finished because I wasn't talking." She muttered, the ball wobbling again before she reached up to put a paw on it, moving to a better position at the same time. "And it went in my stomach, silly."

"Fair enough, I suppose." Eon chuckled. "We'll be done soon, so just wait a bit."

"Ok." Shadow almost huffed out a sigh, but seemed to remember her balancing act and the last moment and just settled for tapping her paw and sweeping her tails around a little. Taylor and Eon exchanged amused looks, quickly finishing the rest of their food and balling up their own bags as well.

"Alright, now we can go to mine." Taylor smiled.

"Good." Shadow _did_ huff this time, blowing the ball off her nose, which Taylor snatched out of the air with a quick movement. Shadow looked impressed. "Nice reflexes. That was really fast." Taylor blushed.

"Thanks." The teen muttered, turning and leading the way out of the alleyway. "Come on, my house is a bit far from here, so we should probably try and get there soon so I can hide my stuff there. Then we can go patrolling in daylight for the first time."

"Are you looking forward to it?" Shadow asked, trotting after her. Eon took a moment to brush the dirt off his tails before he followed with a slight huff of irritation, planning on cleaning it up properly once they were in Taylor's hopefully empty house.

"A bit, yeah." Taylor nodded. "I mean, I'm nervous too, it's kinda strange and I know people'll stare, but I'm used to that."

"Oh, I'm not asking _that_. I mean if you're actually excited for it. A proper step into being a famous rescue team is always done with a high profile mission from someone, normally capturing a big name outlaw, or a Guild expedition where you find lost treasures or areas long forgotten." Taylor looked around and down, seeing a glitter of excitement in her eyes. "I guess it's not _likely_ we'll encounter some big name, but we'll be properly in public and doing lots of work helping people. That's just as good."

"I would almost say it's better, Shadow." Eon put in, taking up Taylor's other side as they turned a corner into another empty alley. "After all, if your team is just known for being famous, you'll be respected for that alone, but people will likely be wary of you. They might not see you as just another Pokemon- or person, in this case- because they don't know about the ordinary stuff you do. If you were known for being quite normal _before_ you were famous, on the other hand…"

"People would be more likely to approach you." Taylor finished, understanding where his speech was going. "Which makes sense for someone like you guys, doing missions, but less for something like a Cape team?"

"It's possible it'd be easier to find informants in groups." Eon elaborated. "You're known to be powerful and famous, but also approachable and keep your word, perhaps even pushing towards noble. That'll make it more likely that other people would be willing to approach with information- hold on." Eon paused, wrapping both himself and Shadow in a cloak again as they started getting near to the streets. "-Information that could help with capturing criminals or finding missing Pokemon that no-one knows exactly where they are."

"Interesting…" Taylor mused quietly, before the three of them walked out into a less crowded but still populated street and they had to fall silent again.

* * *

"Come in, dad's not here, I checked with my bugs." Taylor said softly, holding open the back door for them both. Eon huffed slightly at the idea of bringing the dirt in with them, while Shadow just carefully walked in, trying not to disturb anything. "Don't worry about dirt, Eon, I'll fix it afterwards, before we leave."

"Fine." He grumbled. "I didn't want to get you in trouble."

"It'll be alright. Will you be ok getting it off on your own? I'm going to my room to put my things away and put my costume on."

"Sure, we can manage. It's not the first time we've had situations with dirt, after all." Eon laughed, tails flicking in amusement. "We'll see you in a moment." Taylor nodded acceptingly and trooped up the stairs. Eon listened for the creak of the doors, then looked at Shadow, who was brushing at the base of her tails with her paws. "Be careful, Shadow." Eon said lowly, making her look up at him and pause her ministrations.

"What about?"

"We're hunting in daylight, in a crowded area. You can't hold invisibility very well, so you're relying on your colour change, and that's not necessarily gonna be good enough for this." He told her firmly. "Be careful with how you work today."

"I will, Eon." She nodded. "Don't worry. You and Taylor stay invisible, I'll just drop in and out of things." She pawed gently at the end of his tail. "You be safe too, ok?"

"We both will be." The grey Ninetales placed his paw on Shadow's head. "This world is a lot more dangerous than ours in many ways. No risks, ok?"

"Ok." The two of them turned to getting the dirt off their tails for the next minute or so, then curled up on the floor and waited for Taylor to make a reappearance, listening to the sounds of her moving around upstairs. Shadow pawed slightly at the end of her scarf, the badge above it shifting as she did, and chewed at her lip. "I'm a little scared."

"What of?" Eon blinked, cocking his head.

"Dunno." She shrugged. "Just, something. Something feels off, and I don't like it."

"I thought _I_ was the one with the future sight." Eon chuckled. "But I'll take your word for it. Instinct's have gotten us through this stuff before."

"Like the expedition in Murky Oceans the Guild went on." Shadow recalled with a smile. "That was fun, but a little scary."

"True." Eon shuddered. "The fact that you picked up on the attack before it happened was really lucky. Especially given that damned Scream that came right before it. Thanks again, by the way."

"You've been thanking me about that every other week for the last eleven months." Shadow giggled. "You can let it go now."

"Let what go?" Taylor, now fully costumed up as Swarm, asked, entering the room.

"Oh, just a story from an expedition." Eon waved off, pushing himself up in the same movement. "I'll tell it to you some other time. Maybe this evening after our patrol's over?"

"Could be fun, sure." Swarm nodded, standing next to Shadow. Both vulpines cocked their heads.

"Your voice sounds different." Shadow noted.

"I was messing with insects when I had some spare time, trying to make voices with them." She told them. "I can't use them to talk or anything, and I'm not sure I ever really will, but I can make my voice sound really different like this. I don't know why I didn't think of this before, to be honest, it could've been really helpful for dealing with villains."

"And heroes. Sometimes the so-called _'good guys'_ can be just as bad." Eon said darkly, glaring at the wall.

"Another story for later," Shadow whispered, before saying louder, "I think you might've been too close to the problem? Sometimes me and Eon don't spot things we could do for ages, then when someone points it out it's all _'Oh, duh. Why didn't we think of that?'_ "

"Probably." Swarm hummed, a noise that sounded very odd with the dull hum of insects behind it. "Anyway, ready to leave?"

"One last thing." Eon said, looking between the two girls. "Be careful, both of you. Things in this city are dangerous, and we're going to be out in the public eye for the first time today. Neither of you can get hurt during this, _please._ Especially not you, Taylor. Shadow doesn't have to explain away random injuries to people. You will. Do your best not to get hurt, and stay near me. I'm keeping the both of us invisible, so you should be safe unless we get into a fight about something. Shadow, I'm trusting you to know your limits. Cloak when you have to, hide when you can, and by Arceus keep an eye out for trouble. Don't go running into something on accident that might get you hurt. This isn't back home, in a Dungeon. If you get seriously injured, you won't be teleported out back to a safe spot outside the dungeon, you'll be injured in front of a hostile enemy. Watch out."

"I will, Eon." Shadow promised. "I know things are different here. I'm not going to try something stupid and get hurt. I grew out of _that_ phase pretty quickly as part of a Rescue Team." Eon studied her for a moment, then nodded, looking up at Swarm.

"I'll be careful too, Eon." She agreed. "I'm not as experienced as you are in exploring and rescuing, and I know that."

"Coulda fooled me, jumping in front of a dragon."

"I'll be careful, and listen to what you guys recommend." Swarm finished, ignoring Shadow's comment with the unfortunate ease of practise. "Just show me where to go, and I'll follow."

"Unless we get into a big fight, then I hope you can manage yourself without the team leader yelling instructions at you." Eon grinned.

"I think I can do that, yeah."

"Then come on. Let's get out of here to make sure we don't run into your father or something, we'll cloak outside and get moving. Would you like to make your way to the Boardwalk while in costume, and see what we can do?" He asked, letting Taylor lead the way out of her house and waiting for her to lock up. "Or should we just sulk in the alleys again and pick people off in the dark and dirt?"

"Why don't we do that, but move along towards the Boardwalk as we go?" Shadow suggested. "We can do a bit of both then, right?"

"Sounds fine to me." Swarm nodded her acceptance.

"Then we cloak up and start moving. We'll stick mostly to the alleys this time, so Shadow has an easier time avoiding being spotted." Eon told them, waving his tails. An illusion formed around the two larger members of the team, while the smallest changed her colours to something somewhat darker as they all padded out quietly, dipping into an alleyway at the first chance they got.

* * *

Nearly three quarters of an hour, and one attempted mugging later, the group of three huddled together under a much larger illusion near the Boardwalk.

"So, we're pretty near the Boardwalk. Swarm, you're our native. How do things normally look about here?"

"I don't normally spend too much time here, to be honest." She said uncomfortably. "Don't really have the money to spend on a lot of the shops here, and when I'd normally have the time to even look everyone else is out of school and wandering about, so I can't even get away from those people here." Eon nodded.

"Well, anything you can say, from your bugs or yourself?"

"There's a lot of back alleys and passages, so plenty of potential for a mugging or five. Lots of pretty expensive shops, so it's likely that there'd be some idiot willing to try a robbery." Swarm said.

"That's more likely to be teenage gang members, I'd think." Shadow guessed. "I know back home that robbing low profile high profile stuff is kinda a kiddy move, basically."

"Sorry, what?"

"Um, things that are low profile targets, like shops, but high profile because they're really popular or in really obvious areas with lots of people?" She explained, sounding a little confused herself. "It's a bit of a weird way to class something, but that's what we call it. It's a bit low level, too, mostly newish outlaws who've done enough stuff to think that they're really good, but aren't really that good at all."

"Alright, moving the lessons to later, anything with your bugs, Swarm?" Eon interrupted.

"Things mostly look ok, to be honest. I still don't have the best grasp on insect senses, but I can't hear or see anything nearby." She reported. "It's possible that since most of the teenagers in the gangs are still in school- assuming they aren't skipping, or just mega high in the Merchant's cases- things are gonna be a bit quiet for a while, since they aren't around."

"Perhaps, I suppose." Eon frowned. "And here I was hoping there'd be some way we could have a decent debut for the three of us."

About three blocks over, something exploded.

"Oh, _nice one,_ Eon." Shadow groaned. "Of _course_ you had to speak up, oh so great and brilliant leader."

"Quit your yapping, pix!" The Ninetales snapped, turning to Swarm. "What's happening over there?"

"Hold on, I'm getting bugs into the area so I can see." They waited a moment, where Eon's tails flicked impatiently, then Swarm continued, "Bank robbery. There's a lot of black smoke at the main entrance, and… I think I see most of the Wards there too, plus a white figure? There's a few dogs running about too… Pretty sure it's the Undersiders." Shadow frowned.

"Do we go after them?" She asked awkwardly. "I mean, we helped them the other day…"

"They're villains, and remember what Tattletale said about reputation." Eon returned. "This could be an easy chance for a debut."

"The Wards do seem to be struggling a bit. I think… Clockblocker and Aegis are in the wrong costumes, they're showing the others powers and the dog's going after Clockblocker, who hasn't been seriously hurt yet, so I'm pretty sure they've swapped costumes. Probably to try and fool the Undersiders, I don't think they know that Tattletale's a Thinker." Swarm reported. Eon nodded, grinning.

"Let's go offer a helping hand, shall we?"

* * *

Dennis cursed quietly as he stepped forwards, trying to get close enough to the fight between the giant dog and his team mate to freeze the huge thing and try to buy them a few moments of breathing space. Vicky and Missy were trying to fight a second one, with slightly better results, and Dean and Chris were fighting with Grue and Regent respectively. Bitch was on the side, calling commands to her dogs, and the final member, Tattletale, was nowhere to be seen. Dennis assumed she was inside with however many hostages they'd kept in the bank, but for now he just was trying to even the odds a bit against the Undersiders and their giant dogs.

They were _really_ too smart for dogs, he grumbled mentally, taking another step closer and trying to find some sort of way to touch the dog. A moment later, he jumped and made a small, startled yelp that he hastily muffled.

"Hey there!" A cheery female voice said from his left. "Need some help?" Dennis looked around for a second, trying to spot the owner of the voice, before a flash of red-orange made him look down towards the ground.

And blink, since a two foot tall fox with six tails and a cuteness factor of around twenty-six was not what he expected to find.

"Only, you guys seem to be getting a bit beaten up." She continued, apparently ignoring his confusion. "So I was thinking that it looked like you needed some help."

"We, ah, yeah." He tried, trying to get his brain working again. "Yeah, we could do with some help. Only, um, what could you do?"

"A lot of things, really." She replied, not seeming offended- which Dennis was glad for, since he'd realised about a second after he said it that it could have been taken _very_ badly. "And Eon can do a lot more, if he remembers to tone it down a bit." Her part- or interest- in the conversation apparently over, she took a few steps closer to the dog and ignored him in favour of looking at it.

A sigh made him twitch, then look over at his left again, finding a three foot tall fox with nine tales and an almost six foot tall human had appeared from nowhere.

"Well, she'll be doing that, I suppose." The fox sighed. "Swarm, can you handle the humans, please? I believe I'll be dealing with the other dog, since Shadow seems to have picked this one."

"No problem, Eon." The woman- Swarm- nodded, running her hand through her hair. Dennis mentally recoiled when it came away with some dozen spiders attached to it. "No-one's getting shot at inside the bank, at least."

"I know, I can hear it." Eon told her. "Come on, we might as well get moving." Nodding to Dennis on her way past, Swarm started making her way closer to the ongoing fights between Dean, Grue, Regent, and Chris, before throwing the spiders into the mix in a careful fashion, seemingly waiting for some unknown signal before she did. The fox, Eon, nodded at him as well, walking over to the dog Vicky and Missy were fighting. Dennis just watched, slightly dumbfounded and very confused, as he looked between the girl and the larger fox, before turning to look at the smaller one, Shadow.

"Hey!" She shouted, her voice lost over the growls of the dog. For a moment, her slowly wagging tails stilled, before the rightmost one flicked angrily. "HEY!" The dog froze, as did Carlos, before looking across and down at the fox, whose voice had suddenly become about four times louder and a _lot_ more intimidating. "Thank you. Mr Superhero, you might want to look away…" Bemused, Dennis watched his friend stare at her, before doing a double take and looking away from her as fast as possible, finding one of the nearby buildings many times more interesting than whatever the fox was doing. "Thank you…" The dog continued staring at her, its eyes slowly getting more and more droopy, and it opened a heavily fanged mouth in a yawn.

"Bitch, get them out of here!" A new female voice made all of them jump, including Shadow, who lost her focus on the dog. Said animal began blinking slowly, seeming confused, before a shrill whistle from its owner caused it to jump to attention and run over, the dog that had been fighting Vicky and Missy, as well as Eon, doing the same. A blonde in a skin-tight purple-and-black costume came running out of the front of the bank, another of the huge animals following her. "Grue, Regent, time to go!" Both of them disengaged from their fights with some difficulty, having to also deal with the pile of bugs that had joined them courtesy of Swarm, and made their way over to the dogs, both girls already climbing onto one each.

"Swarm, stop them!" Eon barked, tails wavering in the air. A swarm of bugs rose up at the command, chasing towards the dogs in a terrifying fashion, while an ethereal purple aura blasted from the blue tail-tips of the fox, following after the bugs. Tattletale seemed to pale behind her mask, eyes wide, and Bitch whistled sharply. The dogs jerked off, making a running jump at the nearest building and scrambling up. The purple creation froze and dispelled, now lacking a target, while the bug cloud buzzed dangerously before Swarm twitched, clearly calling them back. Shadow growled, the sound making both Carlos and Dennis jump and Eon turn.

"Damn it." She scowled. "They got away."

"Do we go after them, Eon?" Swarm asked, the cloud of bugs forming at her back. Eon watched after them for a moment, frowning, then shook his head.

"No point. The dogs move far faster than you could, Swarm, and even Shadow and myself would be pushing it a bit." He replied. "They're probably already well enough away, and I reckon those dogs would hear if we gave chase." Shadow huffed, making Eon glance at her. "Oh, get over it, pix."

"Alright. It's been a while since that's happened, though." She grumbled, making her way over to the larger fox. "Normally bad guys fight to the bitter end, or just give up straight away. I miss our reputation already."

"It'll come back, Shadow." Eon grinned, patting her head for a moment. "At least this time we're familiar with the climb."

"True." She smiled, as Swarm coughed.

"Maybe instead of chattering on about your awesomeness, we should actually introduce ourselves to people?" She asked awkwardly, the swarm of bugs now dispersing completely.

"Ah, yes. Thanks, Swarm." Eon nodded, shaking his head. A plume of white-grey fur on his head waved with the motion, making Dennis blink and wonder how he'd missed noticing that before the movement, and how Eon had avoided it getting in the way in the fight, before the giant fox turned towards the group. "Apologies for ignoring you all, and for just jumping into your fights like we did. We felt you all could use some help." The Wards traded glances, then Carlos, as the leader, stepped forwards to respond.

"Thank you for joining in. You're right, we did need a bit of help. The Undersiders aren't really known for frontal assaults, so we weren't prepared for it. I wonder what changed this time."

"Who knows?" Eon shrugged, the motion rippling down his tails. "Maybe we'll find out someday, most likely we won't. No reason to dwell on it either way." He stepped forwards slightly, leaving his two team mates flanking him, and offered a paw. "Now, introductions. My name's Eon, the team leader, Shadow there is my second in command and Swarm's the newbie." Shadow gave a cheery wave to them all, sitting down as she did to wait out the conversation, while Swarm coolly nodded. Seeming slightly more confused, Carlos stepped closer and shook the offered paw.

"I'm Aegis, the Ward's leader, that's Clockblocker, Gallant, Kid Win, and Vista." He introduced them all in turn, Dennis and Missy giving polite waves while Gallant and Kid Win nodded. "Glory Girl was here, but she seems to have gone right now."

"She went inside the bank." Swarm told him. "Something about her sister?"

"Ah, yes. Panacea was in the bank at the time, so she's probably gone to go and make sure she's ok." Carlos winced. "Gallant, can you…?"

"Sure thing, Aegis." Dean nodded, walking past them and into the bank. Eon smiled slightly.

"Her worry is understandable. Family is important, after all." He said, taking his paw back. "So, what's the procedure for this now? I assume it'll be somewhat different to back home, or when we were dealing with muggers over the last few days."

"The police will be here any minute, console says, so we'll need to give statements to them. They'll take witness statements as well, so we'll probably be here a while."

"Understandable." The fox nodded. "Back home, the authorities have a tendency to take extremely detailed statements from every member of the team- or _teams_ , as the case may be- and I was slightly surprised to see that didn't happen with those muggings."

"The police are a little stretched thin in this city." Carlos agreed. "They stick around for longer with the bigger crimes, of course."

"That certainly makes sense." Eon glanced over his shoulder at his two team mates. "Relax, you two. We've got some time before we need to be all formal and giving information." Shadow immediately slumped down slightly, her tails wrapping around her paws, while Swarm just shifted a little on the spot, folding her arms. Dennis took the opportunity to properly examine the three of them.

Eon was clearly the leader of the group, and not just because he'd introduced himself as such. Even being nearly two feet shorter than him and sitting down, the nine-tailed vulpine gave a sense of being completely aware of everything around him, almost unnervingly so. His red eyes were constantly scanning the area, even after telling his two partners to relax- an order that sounded oddly like a slightly rephrased _'stand down'_ to him- and two of the nine tails were twitching, like he was expecting to have to jump into action in a moment.

Dennis wondered what sort of hell the animal had came from to act like that. And why he'd never heard of a pair of foxes causing trouble and heroics, since they were apparently famous, from Shadow's earlier words.

Said smaller fox was now lying on the stomach, six tails curling around her right side to lie along her body, looking completely relaxed and at ease, in contrast to her leader. She was looking around at the building and people in the area, just like he was, but her attitude appeared to be more idly curiosity than waiting for a sudden attack from somewhere. She was looking at him and the rest of the Wards curiously as well, like they were an interesting puzzle she wanted to figure out, but she didn't seem at all hostile, which was nice.

Dennis was especially glad of that, since she'd managed to yell down that dog of Bitch's and probably would've taken it down if Tattletale hadn't intervened.

Swarm was probably the least interesting of the three, in his opinion. She didn't bother looking around, aside from shifting her head slightly, alternating her likely view between Eon, Shadow and the Wards, but for the most part remained basically still. She didn't seem to have any sort of emotions towards the situation at all, which Dennis found unnerving.

Taking a closer look at the brown-black hair, he could see varyingly sized spots of mainly black running up and down it, occasionally meeting each other before moving on. Dennis wondering what they were for a moment, then was reminded of the woman pulling a number of spiders from her hair when she went to join the fight and shivered slightly.

That was one Cape he wasn't going to enjoy having to be around, he felt.

Dennis' attention was drawn back to Shadow when he spotted Missy making her way over to her, the smaller fox looking up with her head cocked in interest.

"Hello there." Shadow smiled, pushing herself upwards into a seated position and offering her paw. "You're Vista, right?"

"That's me." Missy grinned in reply, gently shaking the paw. "It's nice to meet you. We could always do with more heroes, and you're… well, you're really cute." Shadow laughed.

"Thank you. I'm happy to see that people, no matter where they are, find me cute." She smirked. "And Eon and I've always been heroes. Sure, we did it differently to how you guys apparently do things here; rescues mostly, and finding lost items, but we've done our own fair share of criminal hunting deals as well." She looked back at the damaged bank, placing her paw on the floor again and looking a little disappointed. "Although it was always rare that something like this happened."

"How so?" Missy asked, sounding curious. "Did people not rob banks where you came from?"

"Not normally, no." Shadow was smirking again, looking up at Missy's face. "The people that run the banks are really capable of defending themselves, so most people wouldn't take the risk. Plus with the banks being in the middle of towns, and pretty much anyone in the town would help out against a thief, so it's _really_ stupid to try robbing a bank in our place."

"That's interesting." Missy mused. "What about shops?"

"Same sort of thing, really. Marketplaces tend to have a lot of people in them, so it's a bit stupid to try and rob them. Most people have single items stolen, then they put out a request to have a team like ours go and find the item for them, since the dungeons where thieves normally run to can be really dangerous for someone unprepared."

"Dungeons?"

"They're strange places, the layout of them changes for every person or team that enters, so you're never in the same place twice- or rarely, at least. So teams like us get hired to go into those dungeons and get back the stolen items or arrest criminals." Shadow grinned. "They're pretty fun, though some of them can be a real pain to fight through. Some of the targets we've had to hunt down have been really difficult to deal with, assuming they didn't just quit."

"Why would they just quit?" Dennis butted in, suddenly curious. Shadow looked up at him with a raised eyebrow, and for a moment he worried that he'd offended her, but she just grinned harshly after a moment.

"Between my crazy family tree and the skills Eon's learned, from me and other teams, we're absolutely terrifying together. We can manage to fight off pretty much anything working with each other. Burns and Hexes, for example, are really good." She snickered, looking up and back at Swarm. "I wonder what sort of terror we'd make if you came along, Swarm."

"It could be fun, certainly." She buzzed, looking slightly down at her team mate. Shadow nodded, grinning.

"Vespiquen and Ariados would probably be glad to meet you, and you'll probably like them as well. They're really powerful, and really good at trap laying. They work well together."

"Police are here." Carlos interrupted, making the Wards straighten. Swarm stiffened slightly, while Shadow stood up and shook herself out, fur rippling everywhere as she did. Eon remained seated, looking across at the cars rolling up, before turning away and looking at the bank front instead. Dennis followed his gaze, spotting Dean walking out with Vicky and Amy, who spotted the police and hurried over. Dean joined the rest of the Wards in their group, Vicky stayed hovering next to her sister, who froze and stared at the two foxes. Eon and Shadow both ignored them, the female fox moving back to flank her leader again while Swarm stayed in the back.

Chris nudged Dennis, dragging his attention off of the unusual team and back to the police that were heading over to them, and threw a smile on his face.

Time to act serious and give a report.

* * *

A good half an hour later, with all of the statements now collected and the police driving away, the ones who'd spoken to the foxes looking somewhat confused, the group of heroes- and apparent heroes- were ready to depart. Most of the civilians who'd been in the bank, or nearby, had already left, getting bored waiting about with nothing interesting happening with the Capes. Which amused Dennis, given how quick they normally were to stop and watch Capes doing absolutely nothing.

Eon yawned, standing and shaking himself, making the group back away slightly to avoid being hit by one of his tails, and smiled.

"Well, I suppose we ought to be off." He announced, as Shadow and Swarm stepped up behind him. "I'm certain you all have other things to be doing, as do we."

"Ah, a question before you go?" Carlos asked, a little awkward.

"That was one." Eon smirked. "I assume you have a second?"

"Are either of you two Case 53's?"

"Pardon?"

"Case 53's. They're sometimes referred to as monster Capes, all of them are really different from humans, and they have a specific tattoo on them somewhere." Carlos explained, fumbling for a moment before holding out his phone with an image of the tattoo on its screen. "They all have complete memory loss too."

"Well, I can certainly say that isn't what we are. No tattoos, for one." Eon disagreed, closely examining the picture even so. "And no amnesia either."

"Ah. Alright, then." Carlos nodded, putting the phone away. "Sorry for asking, it's just procedure."

"Not a problem." Eon smiled. "A pleasure to meet you all."

"Thank you for helping my sister out." Amy suddenly said, sticking her hand out to the nine-tailed fox. Eon blinked, surprised, then gently placed his paw on it and shook.

"It's our job, madam." He replied. "We're happy to do it." Taking his paw back, he looked over his shoulder at his second-in-command and nodded to her. Shadow nodded back, running away from the group and slipping out of sight into an alley a moment later. "Now, good luck with the debrief I assume you'll all be going through when you return to your base, and farewell." He looked up at Swarm, who gave a nod to whatever question his eyes asked, and the pair vanished from sight. Vicky made a startled choking sound, apparently having been about to ask a question, while Amy just kept staring at where they had been. Dean looked around, confused.

"That's… weird." He mumbled. "I can still kind of feel them, but it feels more like they just teleported a really long way away. They just went all blurry."

"Huh." Chris said.

"Yeah." They all stood about for a minute, confused, before Carlos shook his head.

"Come on, back to base. That Eon was right about one thing, we need to go debrief now."

"Joy." Dennis deadpanned. "See you around, Vicky, Amy."

"Bye, Clock." Vicky waved. Amy muttered some kind of agreement, still looking about with confusion. The group started off, Missy bending space to get them on top of a nearby building before they began roof-hopping.

"They were kind of cute, though." The sole girl said absently, crunching space again and letting them all step through. "And Eon's fur looked really pretty, all shiny and glittery." The four boys blinked, meeting each other's eyes behind their respective masks, and rolled their eyes.

"Priorities, Vista." Dennis chuckled.

* * *

"How come you didn't ask us about the Case 53 thing?" Eon asked, once the group was suitably far enough away, under a unified cloak, and able to relax.

"I didn't think of it, and to be honest something told me you weren't one." Swarm shrugged. "The stuff you were saying against Lung made me think you really were from elsewhere. Or possibly a Master projection that're playing practical jokes on people."

"I see…" Eon mused, then looked at Shadow, who was sniffing about and looking bored. "Do you want to end the patrol and drop back at your home? Or should we go and find another safe house to try robbing?"

"Safe house!" Shadow perked up, cheering. Swarm chuckled.

"Sure, we can do that. I'll keep some bugs out looking for muggings and stuff, too."

"Attagirl, Swarm." He praised. "Alright. Team Inari, form up and we're off." Shadow's colours quickly faded to something more muted as she slipped away, and Eon tightened his grip on the cloak before he and Swarm followed her, walking through the alleyways of the city towards some of the warehouses, which they all thought were likely to have something hidden in them- if you knew where to look.

In his bag, out of sight, the Wonder Map began to glow slightly.

* * *

"Keep your phone on you tonight, Taylor." Eon recommended, several hours later. The girl in question was behind a screen made from her bugs, changing into a civilian outfit from the supply she'd brought with her to the base, while Eon and Shadow worked on emptying out the Treasure Bag, Eon removing things while Shadow moved them into the den. "I'll keep ours turned on too, but keep yours with you even if you take the battery out or turn it off."

"Why?" She asked, over the rustling of folding clothes.

"It's probably a good idea that we always have a way to contact each other, in case of an emergency." He told her, lifting the rolled up Map from the bottom of the bag, before shrugging and putting it back. "If something happens while you're in school, you're more likely to be able to find out more about it than us, so you can send us information. These things do more than just call, I think?"

"Yeah, they can text as well." Taylor agreed. "And I see what you mean. I'll just have to keep it hidden from dad; he doesn't like phones."

"Alright, then." The bug wall came down, revealing Taylor adjusting her glasses and shirt, and the grey Ninetales looked upwards at the sky, then over at the girl again. "We'll walk you back, like before. Shadow, come on."

"Holb om." She mumbled, dragging the bag into the den with the strap in her mouth. The Vulpix returned a moment later. "Right. Where're we going?"

"Taking Taylor back to her house." He repeated. "You ready to go, Taylor?"

"Just a sec." She pushed the last remains of her costume into her bag, then sealed it up and pulled it onto her back. "Ready."

"I wonder if your father's back." Shadow mused as they walked.

"I'll be able to tell once we get close enough to the house." Taylor replied. "There's enough bugs in my collection that I can hear pretty well."

"That's neat." Eon smiled. "Good for security too, so long as you're in range."

"They are, yeah. I have a lot of poisonous spiders in there."

"As long as they aren't in your hair."

"It's safe either way." Taylor shrugged, as the two foxes dropped into invisibility again. "So it's fine for me to do that. Like how you guys can apparently walk in fire and be mildly refreshed by it."

"It's nice, and so far seems to be confusing people that see it here." Eon responded. "Now, we're going quiet. We're still here though, I promise."

"Thanks Eon, Shadow."

"No worries!"

"Any time, Taylor."

* * *

The next morning, there was an explosion.


	8. Interlude- Tattletale

**A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm Interlude 1.**

 **Tattletale**

* * *

Lisa dropped her phone down on the table and sat back, a slightly confused frown on her face, staring at the door she'd just let the two foxes- no, [i]Pokemon[/i]- out of.

 _That was… intriguing._ She mused, chewing her lip slightly in thought. _Very, very intriguing._ After a few moments, Lisa stood, heading into the kitchen area of the base and grabbing a coffee, slowly blowing on it to cool it down while she thought back over the conversation she'd just had.

Listening to the pair of Pokemon explaining their world had been interesting, she thought, but not nearly as interesting as some of the things her power told her that they weren't saying.

 _Mystery Dungeons are different every time._

 _Reason for changes unknown to all Pokemon in their world._

 _Humans exist in their world, but not in their lands._

 _Humans do not normally understand Pokemon speech._

 _Reason for change between worlds unknown._

 _Pokemon on Eon's side of the world know more about the human side than the other way._

 _Knowledge is due to bird migratory patterns._

 _Team rank ups determined upon review of mission difficulty._

All of that was interesting to her, for sure, but Lisa couldn't help but think the most interesting bits had been… missing, as though her power couldn't even figure it out from the clues Eon and Shadow had given her. Which annoyed her half to death, since Lisa could normally get far more out of far [i]less[/i] than she'd been told by the pair.

Partly out of curiosity, and partly frustration, she tried again.

 _Hoopa unknown entity._

 _Hoopa has the ability to create portals._

 _Hoopa ERROR_0x2-ERROR_0x6-ERROR_0x8-ERROR_0x11-ERROR_0x15-ERROR_0x65_101-ERROR-_

Lisa growled, sipping her coffee and frowning at the headache that was starting to develop, cutting off her ability before it got stuck any further.

The exact same thing had happened during the conversation as well. Lisa had been curious about the mention of the _'Hoopa'_ Pokemon that had sent the two to Earth Bet, only for her power to stick in a way that she'd never seen before. She'd almost call it a glitch, in fact. It certainly seemed like one.

The mention of these _'Time Gears'_ was even worse. Her power didn't even want to latch onto it at first, and once she'd finally forced it to, the only thing it had done was repeat the same things Shadow had told her about them, before erroring out on its own a few cycles after.

Sipping from her mug again, Lisa frowned even more deeply.

Another thing that was bothering her was Earth Bet. Explaining it all to Eon and Shadow like that, it had made Lisa realise just how strange, and how _bad_ , the situation on their world truly was. Brockton Bay was a mess, the world was far worse, and the regular Endbringer attacks on every city and country the damn things could pick on had caused so much trouble for them all that she was surprised the world was still even anywhere near as functional as it was. Laying it all out as she had, to a pair of neutral strangers who'd never heard of any of it before, had given Lisa a shock that was almost as bad as the one she knew she'd given Eon and Shadow.

Having been looking over it all during her impromptu speech/lecture, Lisa had had an inkling that something was off about it all. It almost felt like someone was directing it…

The sound of a door slamming shut jolted Lisa from her thoughts, and nearly into her mug, before she pushed off the side of the kitchen's table and walked back into the front room, Brian and Alec meandering in while Rachel appeared from her room.

"So what do you need, Lisa?" The blonde Thinker blinked, suddenly remembering the text she'd sent out in the moments after the Pokemon had left, then glanced at the clock. Ten minutes had elapsed in no time at all, somehow, and she dropped herself into the nearest chair, shaking all other thoughts from her mind as she began repeating the conversation she'd just had.

* * *

"Huh."

"That's about right, yeah." Lisa nodded at Brian, looking over to him.

"Will they come back here?"

"I don't think so." Lisa rolled the thought around in her head for a moment, letting her power chew on it, and nodding to herself when it confirmed her original thought. "They only came because they didn't know about the Rules, so they didn't know that they weren't supposed to track us and just show up at the base. I told them about the Rules, and a few other things besides, so I don't think they'll just show up here again unless we invite them to."

"That's something, at least." Brian sighed. "Fuck, that could've been bad. If they'd been out to attack…" He trailed off, irate, and Lisa shuddered.

She only had an inkling about what they could potentially have done. She didn't want to think on it any harder.

"I think it might be best if we avoid fighting with them whenever possible." She recommended. "I'm not sure what their full abilities are- my power doesn't want to dig into them much more than I've already forced it to- but I don't think it'd be a good idea to try and fight against them."

"Given that the little one took on _Lung_ like it was nothing?" Alec snorted. "Yeah, I'm happy staying the hell away from them when we can."

"Rachel?" All three of them looked at the girl, who glared and shrugged.

"Fine." She answered shortly, before leaving the room and slamming the door behind her. Lisa sighed.

"I think that's as good as we'll get." She told them, standing and grabbing the now empty coffee mug. Inclining her head, she got one confirming nod, and went back to the kitchen to make two new cups of coffee. _I could've sworn I'm forgetting something here…_ Lisa mused to herself, waiting for the pot to finish. After a few moments, her power not providing any clues, she shrugged, giving up on it. _It's probably not all that important anyway…_

* * *

A few days later, on the morning after their bank robbery, Lisa got off the phone in a huff. _Bloody Coil…_ She mentally growled, throwing the phone to one side before flopping down on her back.

The Undersiders' annoying bastard of a boss had tried ripping her a new one for her somewhat panicked retreat order the day before, when Team Inari had shown up half way through the bank job. She'd retorted with the fact that they didn't know enough about them to be able to deal with them as well as they could have fought the Wards, plus her own difficulties in reading them, and he'd eventually backed off, his voice almost a growl and a fairly audible- to her power, at least- glare on the phone as he hung up.

Which had slightly amused Lisa, but not enough to cover up all the irritation he'd _also_ triggered.

Grumbling to herself for a few minutes, Lisa managed to regain enough control of herself to leave the room, heading straight for the coffee. Brian was sitting in the front, reading something, and Alec was on his game, both glancing up at her arrival.

"Something wrong, Lisa?" Brian asked.

"Just a personal pain in the ass, Brian." She replied. "Nothing to worry about." _For now,_ she thought darkly, sipping the mug. "Anyway, my problems aside, anyone seen Rachel today?"

"She was still looking a bit pissed off about the bank job this morning." Alec put in. "She went out, I think."

"Great…" Lisa muttered, frowning again. "Anyone have any idea when she'll be back?"

"No idea." Brian shrugged. "Not as if she can get into much trouble, though. It's just walking her dogs."

It was at this moment the first explosion sounded. Lisa jumped, dropping her mug, while both Brian and Alec startled upwards, Alec pausing his game as he did.

"Of _fucking course_!" Lisa burst out. "Dammit!"

"What was that, Lisa?" Brian demanded. The Thinker frowned, pointing her power at the question.

 _Explosion was a bomb._

 _Bomb was Tinker created._

 _Tinker a member of the Azn Bad Boys._

 _Tinker's specialty is bombs._

 _Tinker attempting bombing attack on city._

 _Attack is due to the capture of Lung._

"Well shit."

* * *

 **Alright! Sorry about last week, folks. Post Christmas 'I don't know what day it is' syndrome, followed up by being a bit busy all week doing other stuff, so I didn't upload. You'll still get the next one on schedule next week, all going well. Also sorry that this is kind of short, bbbbuuuuttt... interlude setup. Sorry again!**


	9. Chapter 8

**A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 8.**

 **Bombing, hunting, and contact.**

* * *

Taylor cursed as she awoke, the shaking of the house making her fall out of her bed.

"Taylor?" Her dad called from his own room.

"Dad?" She responded, her voice trembling slightly. _No, I can deal with this, I managed fine at the bank yesterday, I can handle this._ "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine. What about you?" Danny asked, knocking once on her door.

"I'm ok too." Taylor stood up carefully and made her way over, picking up her glasses as she went past. "What's going on?"

"I don't know." The older man frowned. "Probably some sort of Cape fight." Another explosion went off in the distance, forcing Taylor to cling to the doorframe to stay steady.

"Maybe we should go find out." Taylor muttered, straightening again. Carefully, she took control of the bugs in her room, pulling a few of the spiders out of the box under her bed and sending them crawling along the floor towards the wardrobe, while she and her dad went down the stairs and over to the television.

The thing burst into static for a moment, before scrolling reports of bomb attacks flared on the screen, with mentions of possible Tinker involvement.

"Shit." Taylor whispered under her breath. "That's not good."

"No." Danny said heavily. "This could easily start a gang war."

"Dammit." Silently, Taylor directed her spiders to pull the phone out from under the false board in her wardrobe, putting the battery in and turning it on.

 _Bomb attack on city Tinkers involved cant get out now dads here will try and meet soon._

The message sent to her team mates, Taylor pursed her lips. _I wish I'd told him sooner, dammit._ She sighed slightly. "Dad, I need to go."

"What?" Danny turned sharply, staring at her. "But- the bombs- Taylor, you _can't_ go! You might get hurt!"

"I need to go to my friends, they might need help-"

"Fuck your friends!" He barked. "Taylor, you need to stay here-"

"Dad, there's a lot I need to tell you." She argued, clenching her fist. "I should've said something earlier, but with the Locker and the bullying I never could…"

"Taylor?" Danny asked, confused.

"I'm a Cape." She muttered, slumping in her chair. "I have been since the Locker, that's when I Triggered and got my powers, I've been learning to use them for months since then, I made my own costume in the basement." Taylor sighed. "I went out for the first time a few days ago, and I've ended up joining a new team. We only had our public debut yesterday, but I need to go find them. I've already told them what's going on, but I need to go and help them out."

"Taylor, what-?" Danny began, then shook his head. "No. I'm not going to get any answers out of you, am I?"

"Not right now." Taylor said. "Sorry, dad. I need to go help out, though."

"Stay safe, then." The man sighed. "Too much like your mother. I want to meet your team mates, and I want the full story when you've got time."

"I can manage that, dad." She replied, with a watery smile. "It might be a while, though." Danny nodded.

"I expected that." He gave his own tight smile. "Go on, then. Get your costume together, and for god's sake be careful."

"I will." Taylor nodded to her dad, running up the stairs two at a time. She scooped the phone off the floor of her room, her spiders pulling her costume towards her as she glanced at the return message.

 _Moving out now will meet you soon do your best. Eon._ Throwing the phone on the bed, along with a few spiders, she began changing, directing the bugs to respond.

 _Told dad. Am changing now, will be on way soon. Meet in woods?_ Taking off her glasses and carefully putting her contacts in, Taylor blinked a few times before pulling on her mask and threading her hair through the back of it. Patting herself down, she made sure the sparkling badge of honour was in place, she drew all of the bugs she had scattered around the room to her, opening the large boxes under her bed to let all of them out and pushed her window out as far as it would go to let the ones outside in as well.

Swarm picked up her phone again as it blinked, reading the reply.

 _Stay at yours. We're coming._ She hummed, sending a confirmation, then having one of her spiders take her phone back into the armoured backpack on her costume, the rest of the crawling creatures taking up hiding spots in her costume and hair. Closing the window again, Swarm looked out, hoping to see her team mates there, even though she knew they'd take a lot longer to get there than she'd given them, before hearing the curtains downstairs being drawn shut.

"Dad?" Swarm called.

"You can come down, Taylor." He replied carefully. "Though you might want to go straight into the back even so."

"Just a minute, then." She spent a few more seconds looking over everything, having bugs in her pack check her supplies before ensuring that everything Cape related was locked away under the floorboard in the wardrobe and closing everything she could, including jamming her door from the inside using a few spiders and roaches to drag some random things from around the room into the path of the door once she was outside.

Pushing on it a few times, Swarm nodded, satisfied that it wouldn't open any time soon, she made her way downstairs, doing her best to avoid as many windows as possible. "Hey dad." She greeted, a slight bit of buzz in her voice. Danny jumped, turning to stare at her.

"Holy crap." He muttered. "Taylor?"

"It's Swarm when in costume." She responded. "But yeah, it's me."

"You look absolutely _terrifying_ like that." He told her, carefully looking her up and down. "Impressive, though. How'd you manage to only go public yesterday?"

"I only went out at night, and one of my team mates is an illusion maker." She explained. "We can go invisible, though it's hard for him to hold more than two people at a time like that without help from our other member."

"There's only three of you?"

"Yeah. I'm probably the weakest of us." She sighed. "I'll get there, I know it, but it kind of sucks."

"What's your power, then?" Danny asked. "I'd assume something to do with bugs?"

"Insect control, mostly. Spiders and worms as well." She grinned through her mask. "All individually controlled. I have super-multitasking, basically."

"Interesting." He smiled slightly, still examining her. "Annette would've been proud of you, I think."

"Really?"

"Most likely." The conversation stalled for a moment as the shape of a small squirrel, white with a blue stripe running down its large tail and over its head, blue ears, and yellow cheeks, bounced at the window. Carefully, after a nod from Swarm, he opened it, letting the creature it.

"We're here, Swarm." It said, in the familiar voice of Shadow. "We'll be mostly doing some scouting, though Eon thinks we'll be able to find this Tinker and the bomber if we look around enough. Their scent should be on everything they've made." The image faded, and Swarm nodded to herself.

"That's Shadow, my team mate. Or her work, at least." She told Danny. "I'll see you later, dad."

"Stay safe, Taylor."

"I will." Smiling at him from behind her mask, she unlocked the back door and slipped out, seeing the pair of Pokemon sitting at the edge of her garden.

"Swarm, come on." Eon said softly, in a carrying voice. Nodding, the bug user hurried over, letting the Ninetales cloak himself and her as they started to move away, Shadow vanishing with her own patchy cloaking method. "What's going on?"

"I'm not completely sure." She shrugged. "Pretty much everything I know was in that message. Some kinda bomb attack going on, and they think there's Tinker involvement going on."

"Tinker, Tinker... ah, the scientists?" Shadow checked.

"Yeah, that'd be them." She grinned momentarily. "But it's bad news, trust me. Tinkertech is weird, and doesn't tend to follow the agreed laws of physics, so it's possible that we'll end up with a lot of weird effects going on wherever the bombs are going off."

"We'll do our best to avoid them, then." Eon decided, as they sidestepped into an alley. "Now, any idea where the bombs mostly are?" Swarm shook her head.

"No, but I'll send my bugs out to scout things. I've got about four blocks of range, so I think I'll be able to notice them at least a little, so we can avoid them."

"Thanks." Eon paused, sniffing at the air, then barked. Shadow made a reappearance at his side, looking confused. "Shadow, be careful. You're still scouting, but Swarm's going to be looking for the bombs, so listen to her. If you think you find the bomber, memorise his or her scent, but don't get too close, ok? And don't get hurt."

"Yes, Eon." She saluted, balancing on three legs for a moment, before flickering out and away to do her job.

"Swarm, stay close. Shadow won't go too far, but hopefully she'll be able to get close enough to find out who the bomber is."

"Alright." Loosing a shaky breath, Swarm straightened, directing her bugs into a search pattern across her range, focused on looking for irregularities.

* * *

"Eon," Shadow murmured, coming back to their side around half an hour later. "I've found something. It's... not good."

"Lead the way." Eon growled softly. Shadow nodded, turning on the spot and slowly making her way down the path, invisibility flickering on and off from tiredness, before she dodged into an alley and dropped it. Eon followed, doing the same once Swarm was close enough, and looked at his subordinate. "What is it?"

"I just wanted to give you a moment." She said lowly. "It's just up ahead." Smelling curiosity, Eon noticed some of the bugs in the alley running away from them, and looked back at Swarm.

"I'm just coming up on the end now..." She started, before freezing. "What the...?!"

"I know." Shadow replied, pawing the ground. Her tails flicked irritably, and she scowled at nothing for a moment. "Eon, just... invisibility up, and come on."

"I'll stay here and keep a look out." Swarm said faintly, leaning against the wall and focusing. Eon raised an eyebrow, cloaking himself with little effort and following the semi-invisible Vulpix down the alley.

"What the heck..." He whispered, breathless, as he caught sight of the area on the end of the alleyway.

"I _know_..." Shadow quietly whimpered, as the two of them walked in.

The area was clearly one of the areas that had been bombed, and had once been a fairly decent suburban area, one that Eon thought looked quite nice in comparison to some of the places they'd ended up seeing during their two patrols around the city. However, it was sadly marred by a semi-large hole in the middle of the street, which was quite obviously where the bomb had gone off, but the coating of glass across the entire street was the main cause for pause.

"Goodness..." Eon pursed his lips, looking back and forth along the road. He glanced along the front of some of the houses, then stopped, freezing dead. "Are those... _people_ in there?"

"I think so." Shadow confirmed. Padding forwards down the deserted street, Eon gently reached out and brushed his paw along the edge of one of the glass statues-

 _The man stepped carefully out of his house, looking around warily. Along the road, other people were doing the same, searching for the source of the explosion._

 _"Daddy?" A little girl asked, making him look back and down. "What was that?"_

 _"I'm not sure, sweetie." He replied, gently patting her head. "You go back inside to mummy, ok?"_

 _"Ok." The three year old nodded, tottering off through the house, while he looked around the street again._

 _The chink of metal on concrete made him stop, staring at the middle of the road, where an unfortunately familiar metal capsule was rolling to a stop. He gasped, backing into the house again and starting to close the door._

 _The grenade went off, and he didn't even get time to scream as glass began flashing over the house._

Eon froze, backing away suddenly with a harsh shudder.

"Arceus…" He muttered, steadily creeping away from the now frozen human. "That's… that's…"

"Eon?" Shadow asked softly, touching a paw on his side. He flinched, then darted back into the alleyway, feeling his illusion rippling unstably as he lost concentration.

"That's… I don't…" He shook himself.

"Was it another vision?" She asked, as Swarm came over and patted him on the back, seeming slightly awkward about the entire thing.

"I… yeah, it was." He huffed, pulling himself together and dropping the cloak. "We've definitely got confirmation that it's Tinkertech, and that this bomber _needs_ to go down." He shuddered again. "There were _kids_ in there, Shadow. That man had a little daughter, something like three… how…" His tails lashed at the air as he growled, then struck out at the nearest wall with sharp claws.

"I know, Eon." Shadow growled, scratching at the ground as well. "I don't understand how someone could do this."

"What do you mean, Eon, Shadow?" Swarm questioned softly, her hand still on Eon's back. "What do you mean by visions? What did you see?"

"The visions thing is a discussion for another time, Swarm." He replied. "But… there are people in those houses, with families and everything, that this bomber caught. They didn't even have the time to _scream_ before they died. There wasn't even a _chance_ they could escape."

"I see." Swarm exhaled sharply. "Come on. Let's see how much ground we can cover today." She stood, straightening, while her bugs swarmed around her. "Let's get this person."

* * *

Nearly four hours later, approaching midday, the entire group paused in the middle of one of the streets, all spotting something with their extra senses.

"Isn't that the Undersiders?" Shadow asked, sniffing at the air curiously.

"It is." Swarm nodded, looking at the group with her bugs. They were a little way out of reach, about a block over from where they were currently, and from the scent on the wind seemed both angry and a little bit injured. "Do you think we should go and meet them?"

"We did kinda fight them yesterday, though." Shadow pointed out. "Would they try and fight us again?"

"I don't-" Swarm began, shrugging, before halting. "Tattletale's just noticed my bugs. She's waving them down. Do I go?"

"Go on, see what she wants." Eon told her, curious.

"Alright." She went silent for a minute, then frowned. "She wants to know if we should team up to try and find this bomber."

"Why not?" The Ninetales shrugged. "The more people we have working together, the more likely it is we'll find them."

"Are the local heroes even doing anything, on that note?" Shadow mused, as Swarm directed her bugs.

"Probably focusing on the richer areas of the city." She said, sounding sour. "They tend to do that. Leave's the lower end of the city to the independents, which is probably why they aren't known to last very long on their own."

"Good thing you have a team then, eh?" Shadow grinned. Swarm chuckled, nodding.

"Yeah, it is." She replied. "Anyway, the Undersiders are coming this way now. I've directed them over to us, and given that they've got those huge dogs they'll probably be here in a minute."

"I hear them." Eon agreed, turning to look in their direction. "Shadow, Swarm, back up, will you? Same as yesterday."

"Alright, leader." Shadow smirked, before falling back to flank the Ninetales while wiping the look from her face. Swarm looked between them both for a moment, confused, before shrugging and mimicking her on the other side.

"Ready, Swarm?" Eon asked lowly.

"Yeah, I can do this." She smiled. "It's just like yesterday."

"Hopefully with less fighting, though." Shadow added. Both nodded, then the three large dogs jumped off one of the nearby buildings and landed in front of them, Grue and Tattletale jumping off their own animals while Regent and Bitch stayed back.

"Hello there!" The Thinker called, waving to the three. "Good to see you again. We aren't going to end up fighting again, are we?"

"I should hope not, Tattletale." Eon replied. "Not unless you decide you want to start something."

"No fear of that." She smirked. "This bomber's more important than this right now."

"Good." The Ninetales smiled, before turning to Grue. "Now, then, to business."

"Indeed." The male's voice echoed slightly inside his helmet, creating an interesting disguise for his voice. "Though you'll still want to talk to Tattletale. She's our information expert."

"The bomber's definitely a Tinker, a member of the ABB, and the attack's because of Lung's capture the other day." Tattletale reeled off, losing the smug look slightly. "She's also a bomb specialist, so there's going to be a lot of really weird effects wherever the bombs are."

"We've already seen the effects of one." Eon nodded, with barely restrained anger. "Turned the entire street into glass. People, too."

"I see..." Tattletale muttered, thinking. "That... really isn't good. That sort of obvious disregard for life is probably going to get her a kill order."

"Hey, what happened to you guys, anyway?" Shadow asked, trying to drag Eon's attention off of his thoughts. "You guys look like a mess."

"We got caught up by Uber and Leet." Grue rumbled, sounding a little irate. "Not sure what was going on with them, but they gave us a bit of information. Apparently the bomber, Bakuda has implanted bombs into some of the ABB."

"I see." Eon slowly loosed a breath. "Right. Shadow, think you can manage things?"

"Yeah." She grinned, a little nervously. "I think it'll work." Closing her eyes and focusing, she barked once, a wave of energy flickered out with the sound of a bell.

"Whoa!" Regent shouted, while the dogs recoiled in shock. "What the-?"

"Heal Bell and Heal Pulse." Shadow smiled. "It's something I figured out a while ago. Sort of an accident, actually, I panicked while battling a fake Dialga and used both moves at once trying to heal me and Eon. Good to see that it works in this world as well." Sure enough, it had, the slight cuts and bruises their fight had left on them vanishing, leaving only the marks on the costumes.

"Huh." Tattletale hummed. "That's interesting. Might be a useful skill for Endbringer battles. And we can always use more healers."

"I like healing." Shadow nodded. "I can't do it much, only five to eight times for the mixed one, but Heal Pulse alone is somewhere between ten and sixteen. Still works well. Back home it'll reach through an entire room, so any of my allies anywhere there would benefit from it, but I'm not sure how the boundaries would measure out here. Maybe rooms, maybe just random."

"Still, that's a very effective ability, Shadow." The Thinker whistled.

"Yes, yes. We'll have to arrange something." Eon muttered, sniffing at the air. "Come on, let's see if we can find this... Bakuda, as you called her."

"Sure thing." Grue and Tattletale made their way back to the dogs, the girl turning back after a moment. "Here, Swarm. It'll be easier if you ride along with us. I'm pretty sure Eon and Shadow can move pretty quickly?" She looked over at the pair of Pokemon, who nodded.

"Not a problem. I'm sure we can keep up with you lot." Shadow smirked.

"Go on, Swarm." Eon agreed. "It'll be easier to search that way."

"Alright." The insect user walked over, accepting Tattletale's offered hand to climb onto the back of the dog. Shadow and Eon looked at each other, then blurred into an Agility to boost their speed.

"We'll spread out to cover more ground." Eon decided. "Shadow, stay low, and stay safe."

"Always, Eon." The Vulpix cocked a grin, before vanishing off into the city. There were a number of shocked exclamations, which stopped when the Ninetales looked over at them.

"Don't get lost, and Swarm, call if you get into trouble, ok?"

"Sure thing." She nodded, carefully holding onto the spines of the dog.

"Eon out, then." The grey Pokemon vanished as well, reappearing on a rooftop in the opposite direction from the one Shadow had gone, sniffing at the air for the smell of explosions.

* * *

 _Boom! Boom! Boom!_

Eon startled as the sound of multiple explosions rang over the bay. Quickly spinning in that direction, he inhaled deeply, smelling the wind for any hint of the situation.

 _Boom!_

"Well, they seem to have stopped in the same place for a while." Eon grumbled, using Agility again before bounding across the buildings towards the still ongoing explosions. The sun was starting to set as well, making visibility a bit of a pain, but Eon was lucky in that he could see in the dark fairly well. The problem would be the humans running around, since they didn't have that luxury, and it might cause the bomber to retreat for the day in an attempt to continue this attack tomorrow.

"Eon!" Shadow barked, jumping from the roof next to him and landing. She stumbled for a moment, then picked up the running once more. Eon slowed slightly, letting his second in command catch up with him. "Do you smell that?"

"What, the explosions?" He snarked, speeding up again.

" _No_ , the smell _underneath_ that!" She retorted, panting a little. "Smells like... sparkles, and tin, and... grey?" She sniffed again. "Yeah. Grey." Eon blinked, confused, then sniffed as well, looking underneath the familiar smell of explosions for what she was saying.

"Huh. You're right. That's new." Eon mused, sniffing again.

" _Hey!_ "

"Not what I meant, little pix. I'm more confused at the smell, though. It's weird."

"Unique, though." Shadow grinned. "We can use that to find her later, if she manages to escape."

"Let's try and make sure she doesn't escape, first." Eon remarked, jumping down to street level. Shadow joined him, and the dogs carrying Swarm and the Undersiders followed a minute later. "We've got a scent! Follow us!"

"Alright!" Tattletale shouted back. Bitch whistled sharply, the dogs picking up their pace, panting loudly, while Eon moved into the front of the group.

 _Let's hope we get there on time._

* * *

Shadow, Eon and the Undersiders found themselves overlooking the battle from a nearby rooftop, peering carefully over the edge. Eon had layered a cloaking illusion over the entire group as well, and was sure that Shadow, at the very least, had picked up on it, but the rest of them were theoretically ignorant.

Breathing deeply, Eon's eyes focused on one of the females on the ground. She was clearly the bomber, and not just from the grenades she was throwing around, though that just made it more obvious. The scent of the explosives, both the common and the strange sparkly one, was practically radiating from her like her own personal light show to the pair of Pokemon, making him growl softly in his chest.

"I know the bomber," he muttered, knowing the Undersiders and Swarm could hear him, "But I don't exactly recognise the rest of them down there. Any info?"

"The one in blue and silver armour is Armsmaster. He's a Tinker, and local Protectorate leader. Next to him is Miss Militia, and the red guy bouncing around the place is Assault. Militia makes weapons, and Assault does stuff with kinetic energy." Tattletale explained, watching them. "Not sure where anyone else is, but they're probably running around trying to deal with the aftermath of Bakuda's little bombing spree. Or maybe they're dealing with the ABB, or something."

"Maybe." Eon stayed still for a moment more, then grinned sharply. "I think we should go and offer our assistance, hm, Shadow?"

"Sure thing, Eon." The Vulpix's own smirk was about as wide and wicked as her leader's, and the two continued to survey their prospective battleground and make plans.

* * *

Around five minutes later, Tattletale hesitantly tapped the pair on the shoulder.

"Bakuda's thinking about trying to retreat." She murmured. "If you want to jump in, now's your time." Eon smirked.

"Thank you for the heads up, Tattletale. Since I understand that you don't have the best relations with the heroes down there, I'd suggest you and your team move off for now." The Thinker blinked, and the scents on the air became confused and surprised, but she nodded.

"Right." Tattletale nodded, jumping back up onto her dog. Swarm slipped down, going to stand next to Eon and Shadow, a little bit back from the two. "Seeya around. Probably on the other side of a battle, but oh well."

"Goodbye." Eon nodded slightly, ignoring as the three animals scrambled off, and continued glaring at the battle below.

"How do you plan on doing this?" Swarm questioned, after a moment's delay.

"Illusions, and bug bites." Eon told her. "We'll distract, you go and put her out, and we'll see if we can get Shadow in close enough to Hypnosis her unconscious."

"She's wearing goggles." Swarm noted. "Will Shadow's Hypnosis get through that?"

"I don't see why not." The Vulpix shrugged when they both looked at her questioningly. "I mean, it's worked before on Pokemon with funny vision, and I can Hypnosis bat Pokemon even though they don't see, so…"

"Your powers are weird." Swarm commented.

"Said the insect controller."

"Point."

"Alright, girls." Eon chuckled slightly, rolling his eyes. "Shadow, get down there, I want you close enough to surprise her. Swarm, get your bugs together. Try and avoid anything too poisonous- actually, maybe try and avoid poison at all. Just bite at her as best you can, or fly around and distract her. My illusions will do the same."

"Can you hold that many illusions up all at once?" Shadow checked. "You're holding the cloak as well…"

"I can do a couple more. Pokemon aren't all that hard for me, since I'm so familiar with them. I'll stick with Pokemon that're easy to move, like Ekans and Seviper, but the fox, dog, and cat-like Pokemon won't be too hard either, I'm used to how they move." Eon promised. "I'll be staying away from birds though, since they're a bit harder to make move realistically. I've almost cracked it, I think, but I need more time on them."

"So I'll use a lot of flying bugs to get in her face, and you trip her up on the ground."

"Not literally. My illusions aren't solid enough for that."

"Guys, she's starting to back away." Shadow warned, peering over the edge of the building.

"Go!" Eon barked, making Shadow nod and jump off the side of the building down to ground level. Looking over the edge himself, he flicked his tails, forming a pair of illusions next to him and walking them into the alleyway as well.

"What were those?" Swarm asked, as bugs began swarming out of her costume.

"The long purple and yellow snake was an Ekans. Poison type, pretty weak alone despite the size of'em, but kind of terrifying in a… pack, or whatever the collective for snakes is-"

"Den, I think. Or nest."

"Thank you. They evolve into something called Arbok, which _is_ terrifying even alone and I'll show you later. The other's an Eevee, a cute little fox that has eight different possible evolutions depending on the conditions."

"Huh." Swarm muttered. "Did I mention that your world's weird?"

"You have." Eon nodded. "Now hush. Get your bugs moving, we need to block her. And if we head down there, let me do the talking."

"Sure." The rush of bugs dove over the edge of the building, and out of the cloak as they did so, making the four Capes down on the ground freeze and look over.

"What the fuck?" Bakuda gaped, staring. Eon smirked massively, taking the chance to send the Ekans illusion out, the serpentine Pokemon darting around her feet and lunging as if it were to bite her. "Whoa!" The mad bomber pulled out a grenade and aimed it at the illusion, which is when Swarm sent her bugs in, blinding her.

" _Hey Eon,"_ Shadow's voice whispered, from the sound-displacing illusion she'd become so fond of, " _Do you think that I should use Swift?"_ Eon thought for a moment, then made the brown Pokemon nod. " _Alright. Throw some fake ones in too, if you can."_ Illusion-Eevee nodded again, and a few moments later a flood of real and fake Swift stars were flying out of the alley, the Ekans illusion dodging around them all as they cut into Bakuda's legs.

"Ouch! What the fuck?"

" _I'm going in."_ Shadow said, while Bakuda danced around the illusory snake, the bugs covering her face, and the stars that were very occasionally firing from the alleyway still.

Shooting a glance at the three other Capes, Eon was slightly pleased to notice that none of them seemed to know what was going on. The strange smells from the Capes covered a lot of their scents, especially in the case of the one called Armsmaster, but he and Miss Militia seemed intrigued and curious, while Assault appeared to be just as confused, but also extremely amused by the situation at hand.

A few seconds later, Shadow stepped out of the alleyway with a frown on her face, Eon directing illusion-Eevee to follow her. "Hey, watch your language." Shadow scolded, looking up at Bakuda. With a flick of his tails, Eon moved the Ekans away, looping around the two of them in a slightly protective position, while also giving Shadow enough room to look Bakuda in the eyes. "Seriously, it's a bit impolite, y'know?"

"What the hell are you?" The bomber Cape snapped. From his current angle, Eon watched Shadow's face, frowning, as Swarm made her bugs retreat and join the pair of illusions and the Vulpix.

 _Why aren't her eyes glowing?_ Eon thought, staring at her. _I know she's using Hypnosis, she's got to be, but why aren't her eyes glowing if she is?_

"My name's Shadow!" She grinned, before very obviously forcing herself to go back to at least mostly serious and grumpy. "Um, I mean, um…" While she stumbled slightly over her words, she flicked a tail slightly. " _Make Ekans strike out again in a minute."_ She muttered in his ear, while she personally frowned. "Um, you should stop attacking people."

"Why would I listen to _you_?" Bakuda snarled, taking a step forward and pulling out a grenade. Immediately, the Ekans rose up, hissing and rattling its tail on Eon's command, before lunging out towards her, making the bomb Tinker squeak in shock and jump back.

"Hey, there's no need to be mean!" Shadow barked in return, as the illusion settled back down, still watching her warily. "And anyway, you should listen to me because attacking people is mean, and you're hurting people, and that's _bad_." The entire group was gaping at her now, Eon noticed with a smirk, while Swarm knelt down next to him, still keeping her bugs buzzing around Shadow and the illusions.

"Why is she acting like a child again?" She whispered, leaning close.

"It's one of her tactics." Eon breathed in reply. "She likes to act like a naïve kid around dangerous opponents. It makes then underestimate her, and it confuses them, so they tend to end up focusing on her and gives me a bit of time to get everything I need set up." Frowning for a moment, he manifested badges on the two Pokemon illusions, carefully arranged so that it would seem like they'd been there all along, before refocusing on Shadow. The Vulpix was still talking to Bakuda, making childish arguments about why she shouldn't be attacking anyone, and was now sitting on her haunches, waving one of her forepaws around in the air as she spoke.

For a moment, her paw drifted in front of the single eye Eon could see from his current angle as she brushed away some of the fur from her head plume that'd shifted while she was talking, and Eon noticed the eye flicker to a pale blue colour in the fractions of a second after her paw passed it.

"Ah…" He muttered to himself. "Clever, Shadow. _Very_ clever indeed."

"What?" Swarm asked.

"She's hiding her Hypnosis with an illusion." He replied lowly, while the two continued their argumentative babbling down below. "Most likely she's doing it to make the heroes think she just needs time to focus to be able to knock them out."

"Why would she do that?" She wondered. "I thought she was trying to make herself look like less of a target, not more of one."

"She is though." Swarm blinked, radiating confusion, making Eon explain. "She's making herself less of a target by making herself more of a threat. Shadow's small and cute, which makes her less of a threat, and therefore less likely to be targeted, but by playing up her abilities. It makes her seem like more of a threat to be able to knock you out from anywhere, as long as she's focused on you, which makes her less of a _target_ , since no-one wants to give her the opportunity to get mad and knock you out in an instant."

"It also makes her more of a target because they'll want her out of the fight as fast as possible." Swarm countered.

"They'll do that, and get careless." Eon retorted. "It gives her the ability to pull out other stuff. Or, alternatively, takes attention away from her team mates, who can then take them out while she's being a distraction. It works, we've done it before." He smirked at the memory. "Good times…"

"You need to tell me this stuff."

"Another time."

" _Hey Eon, she's gonna be dropping in a minute."_ Shadow's voice echoed through the illusion, during a period where Bakuda began ranting at her. " _The lenses on her mask blocked me more than I thought, but she's going now. Might wanna get Swarm ready to come down. And also be ready to do whatever you're doing with these illusion Pokemon. Don't think I didn't see what you did with the badges."_ Eon chuckled to himself.

"Come on, Swarm. Shadow's nearly got it, so we need to be down there." He told her, standing and shaking himself. "Oh, look. That Assault person's moving towards Bakuda. I wonder if he's going to try something."

"We should get moving, then." Swarm nodded, standing as well. The Ninetales jumped off the rooftop and into the alley in a graceful, flowing movement, making sure he could still see his illusions to make then react and move like they should, and with another part of his mind he lifted Swarm off the edge of the building and carried her down to him with Extrasensory. "I keep forgetting you can do that." She remarked, finding her balance again.

"It's a bit more difficult than you'd expect. I've got experience with lifting heavy things, no offense, but it's not a skill I use very much." Eon explained, sneaking forwards. "Now, get ready. Stand behind me, in the sort of position that implies you're the third in command."

"I am, though."

"No, there's only three of us. In that case, you don't count as third in command, you count as the rookie." Eon corrected. "And just getting a fourth member wouldn't count, either."

"Fine." She responded. "Now what?"

"-you… argh!" Bakuda snapped, glaring at Shadow.

"Eh, it's not like it bothers me." She shrugged. "Besides, you're gonna go down in a minute, so I think I win anyway."

"Wha-?" She started, before pitching forwards and collapsing to the concrete, snoring slightly on the way.

" _There_ we go." Shadow huffed. "That took way longer than it should've."

"Going in now." Eon whispered to Swarm, before taking a few steps forward out of the alley, standing proudly with his tails swaying behind him. "But you still did well." He remarked, grinning.

"Thanks, Eon." Shadow chuckled, jumping over the illusion Ekans and heading to his side. "Thanks too, Swarm." She added, as the bugs flew over their heads and back to the girl.

"No problem, Shadow." The Cape nodded, as Eon went over to his illusions- now turned around to look at them- and Shadow slotted herself into the second position. The shiny Pokemon was mildly amused to see that Assault had frozen mid-step, and Armsmaster and Miss Militia appeared to have started up a debate in low voices. Out of respect for their privacy, he ignored what was being said, instead moving back to his illusions. Eon examined them for a moment, then flicked his tail and dispelled them both. Assault gave a muttered exclamation of shock, making Eon hide a smirk by turning around again and patting Shadow on the head.

"Good job, little pix." He told her. "That could've gotten very dangerous. I'm glad you're ok."

"I'd've been _fine_ , Eon." She replied, swatting at his paw. "But thanks. Both f'the help 'n' all that."

"No problem." Eon turned again, heading over to Bakuda and sniffing at her, taking the moment to memorise the strange scents attached to her. "Yeah, she's out solid. Any idea how long for?"

"Nope. Probably... I'unno, couple hours?" Shadow shrugged. "Might be less. Prolly more, if anything." She yawned. "Urgh, that sucked."

"How much energy did you use?"

"Dunno."

"Ah, excuse me?" All three of them looked over- and somewhat upwards- at the red-costumed Cape, who was hovering somewhat awkwardly in the background.

"Yes?"

"What exactly... did your friend do?"

"Put'er to sleep." Shadow told him, lying on the floor and resting her head on her paws. "Lik'I said, she'll be out a while." She yawned again, then grumbled to her feet when Eon cleared his throat.

"Well, thanks for that." The man replied, before grinning widely at them. "Hey, you're the three that intervened at the bank yesterday, right? The Wards were telling us all about you."

"Yes, that was us." Eon grinned back, careful not to display too many fangs. "I'm glad we were able to help out before things got too bad, both yesterday and today."

"It would've been a bit of a pain to try and chase Bakuda here down in the dark." Assault nodded. "And if she'd escaped, who knows how much more damage she could've done."

"All part of the job, in the end." Eon said, looking up at the sky. "The dark wouldn't have been too much of a bother for us, I think, but it's still difficult to move and fight in the darkness. Speaking of..." He frowned, lashing his tails. Whirls of fire lanced along his body, forming orbs on the blue tail-tips before detaching and floating around them in loose circles, providing a somewhat eerie lilac light for them to see by and throwing sharp shadows on everything.

Assault whistled. "Neat trick. These things hot?" He reached over towards one, careful not to touch it.

"A little, I think. They might Burn you if you touch them, though. That's something Shadow would need to heal, and she's a bit tired right now."

"Side-effect o'the Hypnosis." She muttered, yawning again. "Be alright inna minute'r so."

"I think I'll just avoid touching them." Assault replied, pulling his hand back. "Useful, though, I'd assume?"

"Pretty good, yes. We've used them as lights before. They're technically battle weapons, but what works works." Eon shrugged, before looking at Bakuda again. "I think we'll leave you to deal with our... friend, here. Shadow, at the very least, should be getting home now. She needs a break."

"Not that bad." The Vulpix grumped.

"I'm pretty sure the others want to ask you some questions..." Assault began.

"You all stay up in that building over there, right? The PRT one?" Eon checked, interrupting him. "We'll come to you tomorrow. Or we can find some kind of neutral meeting point, if you'd rather." Assault hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

"There's a place called Somer's Rock. It's commonly used by heroes and villains to meet up on neutral ground without fighting. We could meet there around midday?"

"Midday would be fine. I'm sure we can find it." Eon grinned, holding out a paw for him. "Naturally, I'll be bringing my team. Bring yours, if you wish."

"Of course." He agreed, shaking his paw. "We'll handle Bakuda from here."

"Tomorrow, then." Eon nodded, shifting back. "Good evening to you all." With a flick of two of his tails, the Ninetales extinguished the Will-o-Wisps floating around and cloaked the group of three, before picking up Shadow by the scruff of her neck and carrying her into the alleyway, Swarm following alongside. Behind them, there was a muttered exclamation of surprise from Assault, which made him grin, while the other two Capes came over, apparently finished with their discussion.

Eon entertained the thought of stopping to listen for a while, before deciding not too. Shadow needed rest, Swarm needed to get home before her dad worried too badly, and it'd have been rude to eavesdrop on potential allies.

Progressing well into the alleyway, Eon placed Shadow on her paws, shaking his head as he did so.

"Urgh. That... should not be as straining as it was." He grumbled. "That's not good."

"Why?" Swarm asked, crouching down and patting Shadow's back.

"It means I'm gonna end up with a headache if I keep pushing myself with illusions." He replied, curling around the younger fox and girl. "Moves use up a different type of energy to illusions, so while I just get tired using Moves too often, I get headaches and more mental exhaustion from illusions. If it gets too bad, I can't do them anymore."

"Oh. That's... bad."

"I can get you home alright, and it'll be fine after a night of sleep and not needing to make anything, so don't worry." Eon added, nudging her ankle. "But moving Shadow here will be annoying."

"I'll be fine." She yawned, swaying slightly on her feet. Swarm giggled, then lifted Shadow into the air, carrying her in her arms carefully. "Hey!"

"It'll be faster if I carry you back. Both of you can spend the night at my place, I don't think dad'll mind and I need to explain things to him anyway." She sighed, then stiffened. "I mean, unless it bothers you...?"

"'Sokay, I guess." Shadow yawned again, shifting slightly so she was more comfortable. "Eon, y'ok?"

"I'll be fine too." He agreed, pushing himself up and uncurling. "C'mon, let's go, we'll take up that offer of staying overnight if your dad's ok with it, Swarm."

"Sure, no problem. Let's go." Swarm said nervously, her bugs buzzing and twitching in her hair until she forced them to stop, making Eon's job of cloaking them easier. The Ninetales slipped past her, standing close to her side as they walked, staying invisible and doing their best to avoid any of the locations where Bakuda's attack had hit.

Unfortunately, there were quite a number of them.

* * *

"Why did you let them leave?" Colin asked lowly of Ethan, while Hannah called for a transport for Bakuda.

"That little fox just took out Bakuda by _looking_ at her." Ethan retorted, waving a hand towards the ABB Cape. "I wasn't going to try forcing her to stay while she had backup. Who knows what the other two might have done? Meeting them at a neutral place tomorrow and letting them bring their entire team with them makes it less likely they'll feel like they're being threatened at all, so we can get some kind of report out of them without needing to worry about them doing something to us if they suddenly felt like they were being threatened for some reason."

"I'm pretty sure they were the kitsune that took out Lung, as well." Hannah said quietly, coming over to them both, keeping an eye on the downed Cape as she did. "Their appearances matched the description that Lung gave. A pair of kitsune, one red one with six tails, and a grey one with nine tails. Plus a girl with some sort of insect control, which is probably the one Lung was fighting in the first place before they intervened." Ethan whistled.

"Wow. You mean the little one took on _Lung_?" He nodded. "Yeah, I'm leaving that alone, then. If the little one, and probably the weaker one, can take Lung, I don't want to see what the larger one could do if pissed off." Colin paused, apparently just as unsettled by that idea as he was.

"Are you going to take someone else with you to Somer's Rock tomorrow?" Hannah asked.

"If the three of them are coming, I probably should. Fancy joining me, Militia?" Ethan grinned widely as she sighed, her eyes showing mild amusement even so.

"I probably should, just to make sure you don't say something stupid to them." She agreed. "And maybe bring Battery as well. She can keep you under control."

A PRT transport rolled up next to them, dispensing a number of troops with containment foam sprayers who immediately moved Bakuda into the van.

"I suppose we should go get this handled, then." Ethan sighed. "Meet you there." The red Cape bounced off, jumping from wall to wall with enthusiasm. Colin and Hannah traded exasperated glances, then headed over to their own motorcycles, starting them up.

"Keep him from doing anything stupid, please." Colin muttered to her, as they got ready to move off. "I have no wish to see first hand what one of these kitsune could do, let alone one of the _Kyuubi_ if it were annoyed." Hannah shuddered slightly, nodding.

"Battery and I can keep him in line, I think." She promised, before smiling as a thought struck her. "Besides, kitsune and _Kyuubi_ are typically pranksters and tricksters. Who's to say they wouldn't get along with Assault because they share his sense of humour?"

Colin actually slowed down in order to give her a dark look through his visor.

* * *

 **AN: To summarise what's going on with updates, my life's a mess and editing is hard. And formatting. I'm gonna do my best to get back to the normal Sunday schedule, but it felt wrong to leave this one until Sunday, so you can have it today instead.**


	10. Chapter 9

**A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 9.**

 **Homecoming, talking and mapping.**

* * *

Swarm, still holding onto Shadow, slipped back into her back yard, Eon silently dogging her steps and telekinetically closing the gate behind him.

"Swarm?"

"Let's go into the house, then you can let go of the illusion." She replied tensely.

"I can hold it." Eon agreed. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Swarm swallowed. "Just not looking forward to this."

"He'sya dad." Shadow yawned, shuffling in her arms. "He'll be fine."

"I thought you were asleep." He replied, looking up at her.

"Was. Though' I should be awake t'meet Swarm's dad."

"Thanks, Shadow." She smiled through her mask, then sighed. "Right. In we go, I suppose. Time to face the music." Eon nodded, releasing the inaudibility illusion as Swarm knocked on the kitchen door. It opened, a tall man looking out of it.

Shadow sniffed discreetly at him, as did Eon, noticing how similar his scent was to Taylor's.

"Taylor?" He asked lowly. Eon flickered the illusion, stepping closer to Swarm's side as he did so.

"We're here, dad." She replied, as he startled slightly. "I bought my team mates too, though Shadow's a bit tired."

"I'll be a'right." She remarked, punctuated by a yawn.

"Come in, then." The man nodded, stepping back out of the door. Swarm lead the way, still holding Shadow, and Eon pushed in behind her before breaking the illusion over the three of them. He sagged slightly, his tails drooping, before shaking his head and pushing himself up again, still acting as the team leader. The door closed, the man looked over the group. "Taylor? These are your friends?"

"Yeah." Swarm nodded, before leaning down to place Shadow on her own feet next to Eon, then peeling off her mask, revealing tired eyes underneath. "Dad, these are my team mates. Eon, the grey one, is a Ninetales and the team leader. Shadow is the second in command, a Vulpix. They were a team before I came along, but they've let me into their group. Eon, Shadow, this is my dad, Danny Hebert."

"A pleasure to meet you." Eon greeted, taking a step forward and offering a paw to shake. "My apologies for keeping Taylor out so late. I assure you it was not intended. We were hoping that we would find who we were looking for earlier than this, and by the time we found the scent, it was so late that we had to catch her before she was able to escape and do more damage." Danny looked surprised, then shook the offered paw.

"I suppose that's alright." He replied. "At least she's back safe."

"We've been doing our best to keep her out of danger, though from what I've seen so far it's mostly been good luck that we have at this point." Eon frowned slightly, looking back at the insect controller and the Vulpix behind him. "Plus the fact that Shadow's willing to push herself to almost unsafe levels to keep trouble out of the way."

"'Snot unsafe." Shadow grumbled at him. "Jus' a bit tirin', 'sall."

"Keep telling yourself that, and maybe one day we'll believe it." He sighed, taking back his paw from Danny. "But not today, though."

"Bleh." She stuck her tongue out at him, then shook her head and walked slowly forwards, offering her own paw to shake with Danny. "Um, hi, Mr Hebert. Nice t'meet you too. S'rry 'bout bein' tired."

"It makes sense, it is a bit late." Danny nodded, looking at the nearest clock. Eon and Taylor both looked too, then winced; it was a little after ten, and they'd all been out and searching since eight that morning.

"Dad, I'm going to go get changed out of my costume." Taylor started, looking a little awkward as she did. "Do you want to talk tonight, or tomorrow morning?" For a few moments, Danny looked conflicted, then shook his head.

"Tomorrow. Your team mate, Shadow, needs to sleep, I think, and it'd be best if we all went into a conversation like this with clear heads." Eon nodded, heading over to Shadow again and letting her lean on his side as she released Danny's hand.

"Probably a good idea, Mr Hebert." He smiled a little, trying not to show too many teeth. "We'll be here tomorrow… around ten, perhaps? That should give everyone time to recover… and Taylor, we'll bring some more stuff from the base down to you, since I think we need to show you some of it still and we might as well do both at once."

"Wait, what?" Taylor blinked, glancing at him. "You're going back to the base?"

"Well, yeah." Eon shrugged one shoulder, steadying Shadow slightly with a tail as she swayed with the movement. "It's not too much of an issue to get back, it's dark enough that I don't think we'll need a cloaking illusion to hide properly, I can just throw darker colours over us both, and once we reach the woods then I can drop that completely. Won't be too bad."

"Why don't you just stay over?" Taylor asked, then freezing slightly and looking at her dad. "I mean, they can stay over, right? It'd be better than them needing to go back to the base again just to come back here tomorrow."

"I... suppose that's ok?" Danny said slowly, looking between the three of them. "We have a spare room you can use, Eon, and I suppose Shadow can sleep in the same one as Taylor or something-"

"We'll sleep in the same room, it's no problem." Eon replied, half-shrugging again. "We do all the time in our normal bases, so we'll be ok doing it here."

"Y'p. We'll b' fine." Shadow muttered, yawning again. "Don' worry 'bout us."

"Well, ok then?" Danny sounded a little confused, and Taylor took over, lifting Shadow in her arms again to a slightly tired protest.

"I'll show you both the room, ok? It's right next to mine." She told them, starting up the stairs two at a time. Eon hurried up after her, his tails curling slightly so that they didn't drag on the steps, and she pushed open the door. "It's a little bit of a mess, we haven't used it in ages, sorry."

"It's fine, Taylor." Eon smiled up. "Trust me, when we worked with the Guild, we worked with some really messy people. And the expedition… well, let's just say it doesn't matter about any mess, we'll be alright."

"Ok." She smiled slightly, then let Eon lift Shadow out of her arms with his telekinesis and carry her in with him.

"It'll be fine, Taylor." He muttered, looking back at her. She blushed.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Not overly, but a bit, yes." Eon replied, placing Shadow on the floor and walking back to her. "Seriously, don't worry about it. You tell your story, we'll tell ours, and your dad'll be fine with it, so there'll be no need for you to sneak around when going out to patrol with us."

"He'll probably put more restrictions on doing patrols, though." Taylor sighed slightly.

"He's your dad, it's expected. We'll make sure everything's manageable, and we'll work in line with whatever he wants." Eon smiled. "Trust me, it'll be fine. I'm sure we can handle it."

"Thanks, Eon." The Cape crouched down, hugging her team leader, then drew back into the doorway of her own room. "I'll see you tomorrow, then."

"Sleep well, Taylor."

"You too, Eon. Say night to Shadow for me."

"If she's not already out, I will." The Ninetales nodded, before stepping back and closing the door. He heard Taylor doing the same, drawing the blinds as she changed out of her costume, while he looked around the room before digging out a blanket for them to lie on, curling around the ball of fur that was Shadow once he had her settled. "Night, little pix."

"N'gh', Eon."

* * *

Taylor woke incredibly early the next morning, a bundle of nerves twisting her stomach into knots. For a while she just lay there, staring blindly at the ceiling while directing the weaving spiders under her bed to keep making her spare costume for her, before she finally hissed out a quiet sigh and rolled over, looking blearily at the clock.

Six o'clock.

Wonderful.

For a few moments, Taylor entertained the idea of sneaking out to go on her run, then thought the better of it as the muscles in her legs protested. While she hadn't had to do _that_ much running, she'd still done quite a lot in the process of hunting for Bakuda, and sitting on those mutated dogs for as long as she had had hurt.

With another soft sound that was half sigh, half groan, Taylor pushed herself upright and found her glasses on the dresser, putting them on and blinking a few times as she focused.

"Right," she murmured to herself, moving to pull the box of spiders out from under her bed, "Let's see if I can do anything to hurry this entire thing up…" For a little while, Taylor directed her spiders around the already woven piece of spider silk, trying to remember exactly what she'd done to make her costume the first time, drawing more spiders out from the tangle under her bed to do so, and happily lost herself in the semi-familiar motions of it all, at the same time watching the bugs outside as they went about their own days.

"Hey, Taylor?" A quiet voice asked from the door, slightly startling her.

"Shadow?" The bug user blinked, looking up to see the Vulpix edging around the door slightly. "What's up? Come in."

"Thanks." The little orange fox made her way over, smiling slightly as she did. "Your room's pretty cool."

"It's not much." Taylor dismissed, looking around despite herself. There'd been pictures in there once, but most of them had Emma in them in some capacity, so she'd moved them out of her room once the bullying started.

"The base is currently a little more than a room with some boxes and beds." Shadow replied. "So this place is definitely better than that. And our little base back home isn't much different, either. I mean, we don't really keep mementos in the base, they go in the storage Kangaskhan runs in the town, because it's _definitely_ not getting stolen from there, while someone might think it's a good challenge to break into a semi-famous Rescue Team's base."

"That's stupid."

"That's life. There's stupid people no matter where you turn." Shadow sighed. "Anyway, how're you doing after yesterday?"

"I'm fine." Taylor frowned, confused. "Why wouldn't I be? You and Eon were the one's over exerting yourselves trying to do a ton of illusions at once."

"Yeah, and that's... kinda why?" She started, scuffing her paw against the carpet of the room. "Like, you didn't really get to do much, aside from using your bugs to help intimidate Bakuda a bit, so I wanted to know you were ok with that."

"Yeah, I'm ok." Taylor shrugged. "You and Eon had the better abilities to deal with things there, and my powers are probably better for either recon or distractions."

"To be far, so're ours." Shadow retorted. "Illusions are good at distracting people, or making it look like you have much more backup than you really do, or hiding yourself to eavesdrop on people, or something like that. It's just that we happen to have a number of offensive abilities, as well as defensive and support. You just need to find your way of doing that, and you're golden, but for now you're the rookie, so you're just learning. None've us'll be annoyed if you don't do much for the first little while, and we'll help you figure stuff out."

"We've already had the idea of using my bugs to make people shapes to hide where I am."

"Yeah, and you'll probably have to get used to setting up massive swarms of them, so you can have tons and tons of clones going at once in big packs, and probably get used to having loads of bugs crawling on you so it looks kinda like you're a clone as well, which might suck."

"Maybe, yeah." Taylor frowned. "How would I even get enough bugs on me, and carry them all around?"

"Why carry them? Just have swarms wandering the sewers after you or something, like a massive bug party, and bring them up when you need them." Shadow suggested. "Keep what you want on you, and hide the rest."

"That works. I'd need to find a way to protect them when I'm out of range, or just always have them following me, but that could work." Shadow smiled.

"See? Already using your powers better. So support is covered, with recon and clones. Defence is a bit harder, unless you use them as shields to stop attacks using compacted bugs, which is a bit mean and gross, but would work. Offence, basically fine, if you like bites and stings and aren't worried about allergies... and I can heal reactions anyway, in an emergency... but yeah, maybe you're better off with support and possible defence, and keep your more offensive stuff as a backup. Or just stop caring about possibly hurting people, but I wouldn't recommend doing that, it's a bit worrying."

"Yeah, I don't think I could do that." Taylor nodded. "But honestly, I'm ok with acting as support. I'm the new girl, and my powers lean that way, so it's fine."

"Good." Shadow sniffed, looking for a moment at the weaving spiders, before finding a clock. "Huh, half six. Want to do anything? Eon's still sleeping, he was more tired than me-"

"Probably because of all of those power naps you took on the walk back." Taylor put in, with a slight smile.

"-Hush, you. Anyway, I think your dad's still asleep as well, so what do you want to do while we wait? You just gonna work on your costume, or...?"

"We could go and cook, I guess. Do you know how?"

"Of course I do. Mostly berries and stuff, but I can cook. Fire type, remember?"

"I'd take that as a sign that you can _burn_ things, not _cook_ them, but whatever." Taylor grinned, standing up. "Let me put the spiders in the box again, so they're out of the way, but I can keep working on it even when I'm doing something else."

"Heh, super multitasking too." Shadow chuckled, as Taylor pulled a box from under her bed and lifted the still weaving spiders into it. "That's a pretty cool bonus power."

"It's mostly for my bugs, but I can do multiple things at once a lot easier than before I Triggered, yeah." Taylor shrugged. "Still not entirely sure it was worth it."

"Was it bad?" Shadow tried nervously, watching her stiffen.

"You could say that, yes." Her voice was flat.

"I'm sorry." The Vulpix's ears drooped. "I don't think I like this world much. It's mean, even meaner than ours could ever be. Even on bad days, ours wasn't too bad. You didn't get murderers and thieves with massive mental problems running around. This is a mess."

"Yeah, it is." Taylor sighed, poking her glasses.

"I guess we'll have to try and fix it, then." Shadow scowled at the wall. "It'd be easier if we had bigger backup, not even any of the Legendaries but just bigger and more power Pokemon than just us, maybe more of us as well... but we'll have to do what we can."

"I'm glad you're so confident." Taylor snorted, looking at her with her head cocked slightly.

"Someone has to be. Might as well do it." Shadow grinned. "It's getting too heavy in here. C'mon, let's go try cooking stuff!" Taylor chuckled, following Shadow as she danced out of the room.

"Shadow the Vulpix, apparently comic relief." She muttered to herself, closing the door to her room.

"Basically, yeah." A voice by her ear said, making her lurch and spin around. "Heh. Sorry. It's the voice illusion I was using yesterday. I heard what you said, so I thought I'd give you an answer."

"Dammit Shadow." Taylor grumbled, heart slowing down to more normal levels as she went over to the stairs, spotting the Vulpix lying almost flat against the wood three steps down. "That was only mildly terrifying."

"Thanks!" She smirked, standing up and running down the stairs. "Glad I'm doing my job ok." Taylor smiled slightly, following on as Shadow made her way into the kitchen area. "Oh. I didn't think this through, did I."

"What's up, Shadow?"

"I'm short." She called, as the Cape entered the room. "And you guys have things a lot higher up than we do. This is a problem." Taylor started laughing.

"Sorry… how do you handle it normally?"

"People get kitchen areas custom done, or they sometimes build them themselves so it's to scale." Shadow explained, watching Taylor pull things out with practised ease. "Makes it hard to use someone else's kitchen, but most the time if you're stopping with someone you aren't cooking yourself anyway. And camping equipment can be custom ordered, but is usually pretty small, since there's normally a Pokemon in the team who's small enough to use it or can use telekinesis if they aren't."

"Huh." Taylor paused, then went back to finding the eggs. "That's cool. Hey, are you and Eon alright with eggs and bacon?"

"We can do that, sure." She nodded. "Is it ok if I jump on a chair or something to watch?"

"Go ahead." Shadow carefully pulled out one of the chairs at the table and jumped up, taking a moment to stabilise before balancing with two paws on the back of the chair.

"Why d'you have so many chairs, if it's just you and your dad?"

"When mom was alive, we had friends over a lot. We just never put them away." Shadow winced.

"Sorry."

"No, it's ok. You have questions, and I can answer them. No problem." Even still, Shadow stayed silent for the rest of the time Taylor was cooking, deciding that it would be a better idea to just watch and not talk in case she messed up something else.

"Morning, you two." Eon greeted, ten minutes later as he strolled into the room. "I heard you down here, Taylor, so I thought I should come down toooooh is that bacon?" Taylor blinked, looking down at the frying pan.

"Yes?"

"New favourite person." He decided, carefully shifting another chair and jumping onto it, curling his tails around his paws to keep his balance. "Thank you, Taylor."

"Eon's fond of bacon." Shadow explained, when Taylor gave her a questioning look from the corner of her eye.

"I gathered, now." She remarked, turning for a moment to pat Eon slightly awkwardly on the head before rushing back to everything. "And good morning, Eon."

"Oh, yeah. Morning." Shadow said belatedly. "And hi, Mr Hebert who just walked into the room and seems mildly confused." Taylor and Eon jolted a little in surprise, then looked over to the doorway, where Danny was leaning against the edge and looking in.

"Hello, Shadow, Eon, Taylor." He replied, still watching the three of them. "Thank you for starting breakfast, Taylor."

"No problem." She blinked, going back to the things. "Things should be done in a couple of minutes."

"Need any help?"

"I'll be alright, thanks, Eon."

* * *

Around a half an hour later, once everyone had eaten and Eon had arranged to wash the cutlery using his telekinesis from the chair so that he could see properly- something which interested Danny and slightly unnerved Taylor- the group moved into the front room to talk, with Eon and Shadow sitting carefully so they couldn't be seen well from the outside.

"So what would you like to know first, Mr Hebert?" Eon asked, taking the lead again. He was sitting up somewhat, with his tails curled around his paws again and the blue tips dangling over the edge. Shadow, conversely, had curled up on her own seat with her tails lying mostly parallel to her body, and her head resting on her forepaws as she watched the two humans.

"Actually, I'd rather start with Taylor, if you don't mind." Danny requested, looking at his daughter, who shuffled. "Since when've you been a Cape?"

"Since the Locker thing, back in January." He winced, and Eon frowned, remembering the vision he'd seen a few days before. "I got my powers after that, and I've been learning to use them since then."

"Christ... four months? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I just... couldn't. Too much was happening at the time, and since then it's never felt like the right time to bring it up and talk about it." Taylor shrugged, embarrassment colouring her face. "But, well, I made a costume, and I've used abandoned warehouses and stuff and the basement to practise and get used to my bugs, then a couple of nights ago, on the eleventh, I went out for the first time on a patrol." She looked down at the floor, wringing her hands. "I didn't really plan on doing much, just going around and maybe stopping a few muggings or something, but..." Eon snorted slightly, and Shadow grinned.

"Of course you were only planning on doing something simple. _No-one's_ first proper time out ever goes particularly right. We had a friend who ended up finding a criminal on a hunch during one of their errands. We fought an angry Druddigon by accident, because someone else had annoyed it." Eon told her.

"Yeah, I've seen that now."

"Taylor, what did you do?" Danny questioned, pinning her with a look.

"I found a group of ABB talking about killing kids." She said. "I couldn't let that happen, so I went after them." She paused, then added reluctantly, "And Lung."

"Holy shit, Taylor!" He shouted, staring at her. "Why would you do that? Are you _mad?_ "

"In her defence, Mr Hebert, Taylor was doing really well in her fight." Shadow started, leaning forward and lifting her head. "If we hadn't interrupted, she'd probably have won, though it'd've taken a while."

"You interrupted?" Danny turned, still looking angry.

"Quite." Eon sat up a little straighter, shooting Shadow a stern look. She lay down again, grumbling a little, while he gave a reassuring smile to Taylor. "Our story is a little bit longer, and the three of us have a meeting at midday, so I'd like to leave quite early to make sure we can find out about it all."

"When will we leave, Eon?"

"Half ten, perhaps?" He shrugged. "Assuming you know where Somer's Rock is, we could leave later."

"I don't, but I could find out. The computer's bad, but it works." Taylor smiled a little.

"Thank you, Taylor." Deciding that they'd waited long enough for Danny to calm down slightly, Eon turned back to the man. "Personally, my story starts just over two years ago, in another world. Our world- mine and Shadow's, that is- is a strange mixed world. On one side, the main species are humans, while on the other, no humans exist. There's a chain of islands in the middle, the Orange Archipelago, where the border between the two sections of the world exists. I'm not entirely certain anyone on the human side of the border knows of our side, but we know quite a lot about them from migrations and the like.

"Anyway, our kind are part of a large collection of species known as Pokemon, which are split up into sets of species, and evolution lines, and the like. There's time for a better explanation later, I think. My kind are called Ninetales, and Shadow is a Vulpix, which is a Pokemon that evolves into Ninetales depending on certain conditions. Shadow's always been a Vulpix, but from what I remember I was once a human, who got transformed into a Pokemon by something. It's not a completely unique case, I've heard of at least two others, but it's still very rare. I also ended up with amnesia, so I don't actually remember being a human, so most of my memories come from being a Ninetales instead."

"Eon's also what's called a shiny Pokemon, which is a special and rare type of Pokemon with a different colour scheme. Ninetales' are normally golden, with orange tail tips, but him being special made some Pokemon a bit wary of him." Shadow inserted. "Since shiny Ninetales' are often used by Inari, who's a Ninetales that can appear like normal, or shiny, or as a red Ninetales instead, as messengers."

"Shadow and I formed a Rescue team about six months after my arrival." Eon continued, giving Shadow a slight look. "We'd known each other for a while before- Shadow's actually the first Pokemon I met after whatever accident I had- and she'd been trying to get into the local branch of the Wigglytuff Rescue Guild for a while, but got rejected for being too young to work on her own. She asked me to come work with her, I agreed since I was kind of at a loose end, and we've made our way up to Hyper Rank-"

"The Ranks go Normal, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, Super, Ultra, Hyper, then Master, Master Star, Master Two Star, Master Three Star, and Guildmaster." Shadow put in again.

"- To the point where we sometimes got the rare request for battles or help off of Legendary or Mythical Pokemon, which're kind of like gods in our world." Eon glared slightly at Shadow, who just gave him a slightly smug look and settled down again. "We got one about two months ago from a Pokemon called Hoopa, which is a sort of genie-like Pokemon that can open portals. We helped him out with a thing, and then six days ago we were approached with an offer of going through one of his portals to go somewhere else and do a job of trying to fix things there, with the offer of a pretty big payment when we ever get to finish it."

"Which is nice, because money is very useful." Shadow added, making Eon sigh.

" _Anyway_ ," Eon restarted, "Five days ago, we came through, landed a little ways away, and used my experience with making illusions of human-like Pokemon plus some descriptions from other Pokemon to make illusions and run around a bit, before we stumbled across Taylor here fighting Lung. I pulled her out of the fight, and Shadow took the dragon down."

"Shadow did?" Danny looked shocked, staring at her.

"Heck yeah! I'm way more powerful than I look, we're both immune to fire, and it turns out that even a dragon running mostly on the power of rage isn't immune to cuteness overloads." Taylor snorted, and even Danny smiled slightly through his confusion. "But yeah. We invited Taylor to come join us the next night, then we've been doing patrols since. We were involved in dealing with a bank robbery along with the Wards and Glory Girl two days ago against the Undersiders, then obviously yesterday was the whole bombing run thing." Danny nodded, and Taylor glanced at the nearest clock. Eon followed her gaze; it was eight o'clock, which gave them plenty of time to find out where they needed to be.

"Is there anything else you'd like to ask, Mr Hebert?"

"I… no, I don't think so." Danny said slowly, still looking a little confused. "I'd like some time to think on this, and at some point soon I think I'll have more questions for you, but for now I'd just like to think about everything. You mentioned a meeting at midday?"

"After the capture of Bakuda yesterday evening, Assault asked if we would be willing to speak to the PRT about the event. Since it was so late, I managed to arrange for that meeting to occur today instead, at midday, with my entire team coming along. I believe Assault will be bringing his own partners as well, or at least some of them." Eon explained. "Originally I suggested that we could make our way to the PRT's building, but Assault suggested a place called Somer's Rock as our meeting point instead. Apparently it's commonly used as a neutral ground for meetings where no-one wants to fight."

"He folded about that pretty quickly, didn't he?" Taylor mentioned, looking introspective. "I wonder why. In his position, I think I'd rather talk to the unknown new Cape team- even though you aren't Capes, the PRT don't know that right now, and I _am_ a Cape so they'll probably go with the idea of it being a Cape team- in a place where I had more power to leverage than in neutral grounds."

"Actually, neutral grounds makes much more sense if you think about everything." Danny put in, making the group look at him. "Alright, look at it this way. You said that Shadow took down Lung, right?"

"I did." The Vulpix looked proud of herself.

"It's likely the Protectorate picked him up after that. I didn't see anything on the news, but they might not have put it out yet or we might've missed it. Either way, they probably interviewed Lung about what happened, if they didn't know."

"If anyone found him, he would've been alone." Eon confirmed.

"Alright. So, assuming he was open to talking, which he might have been, then the Protectorate would know what happened. So now we've got an insect controller that held her own against Lung, even for a little while, a small creature that was able to weaken and defeat Lung alone through strange and unknown methods, and a third, somewhat larger creature who is a complete unknown."

"Actually, they may know about my telekinesis, since I used that to move Taylor out of the way of the battle."

"Mostly unknown, then. Either way, that's the information they had going into the meeting yesterday. What happened with the Wards?"

"Shadow went after one of Bitch's dogs, using Hypnosis to put it to sleep, though she failed to manage completely. They might know a bit about Roar, or at least know that Shadow can make her voice a lot louder to scare people, since she used that to attract attention. They'll also know about our invisibility, because we used it both then and yesterday in the aftermath of Bakuda."

"They might know that you have better senses than normal people, too, since you were listening to the inside of the bank and all." Taylor added.

"Ah, yes. I'd forgotten about that. Thank you, Taylor." Eon nodded. "I also used the move Hex there, so there's that too."

"Ok, so they know some of what you can do from there, plus whatever they learned yesterday." Danny raised an eyebrow, making Eon continue;

"They'll know about Shadow's Hypnosis, though they won't have any idea of how quickly she can do it thanks to Bakuda's goggles slowing things down. I used Will-o-Wisp to provide light, and Shadow used Swift. There were also two illusionary Pokemon involved, an Eevee and an Ekans, that I used to distract and corral Bakuda before dismissing them."

"Did whoever was there see that?"

"Assault, Armsmaster and Miss Militia were there, and all of them saw the whole thing, so yes."

"Do they know they were illusions?"

"They might, they might not. I've always been quite good with illusions, Eevee move quite like Shadow and I do since they're a similar species and it's not hard to mimic snakes, so while they know of my illusion abilities they might also believe they're real and that we can call backup."

"I _wish_ we could." Shadow grumbled quietly from her seat, curled up in a ball once again.

"That second seems like a little bit of a leap, given that they do know about your illusions, so they'll probably go with that." Danny said. "But either way, I understand that they know very little about any of your abilities, compared to what I'm sure you could do if pushed. In their position, I'd be very cautious about doing such pushing. Bringing you into the PRT building, where they have the upper ground and might have other people involved in the interview who aren't as restrained, they might be worried about something happening that could make you all feel threatened in some way, and they might not be able to handle it to stop anything going nuts. In a neutral zone, on the other hand, things are probably going to be calmer, since neither side has the upper hand so no-one's going to want to push. Plus you'll be meeting with a few representatives of the PRT and Protectorate, so they'll have been chosen on how likely it is that they can keep their tempers in check and avoid causing a scene. Along with the fact that it'll be at least a _little_ bit public, it'll keep them calm while they hope it does the same to you, so no-one causes trouble." Eon looked impressed.

"A lot of thought went into that."

"I work in the docks, and at this point I might as well be a politician for all that I deal with them on." He shrugged. "I've gotten good at reading people."

"Thank you for your input, then." Eon gave, waving a paw. "I'm not exactly used to people with such strange motivations, so it's good to have some help."

"No problem." Danny seemed to wrestle with himself for a minute, then nodded firmly to himself, fixing his eyes on the Ninetales. "You're Taylor's team mates, and you've been keeping her safe. If you need help with this world, and Taylor can't give it, I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you, Mr Hebert." Eon smiled widely, as Shadow looked up properly and Taylor gaped a little.

"No problem. Now, it's half eight, so perhaps the three of you should get ready for your meeting now, and go and find out exactly where this building is."

"Probably." Shadow agreed. "Wish the Map could help…"

"Map?" Both Taylor and Danny asked.

"The Wonder Map. It's something that all Rescue and Exploration teams get, at the very beginning when they join the Guilds or whatever, mostly Wigglytuff's Guild but there's others as well." Eon explained, as Shadow vanished up the stairs to go and get the bag that they'd brought with them during the Bakuda battle. The entire thing had been mostly healing supplies- though they hadn't encountered anything that would need them, and the confirmation that Shadow's Heal Pulse/Heal Bell worked in this world meant that they probably wouldn't need them much unless Shadow was knocked out- but Eon had left the Map in there despite the fact that it probably didn't work. "The Map automatically updates as you discover new areas, or once the Guildmaster or their assistant opens the area to you, which allows you to go and explore the place on your own. It's mostly for safety purposes, since the Map will always know where you are and let you find where you are that way."

"That's interesting." Taylor mused. "And it shows your world?"

"Anything we've explored, sure." Eon nodded. "I think that's why Shadow's just vanished, so she can show you."

"Yup!" Shadow grinned from the doorway, putting the strap of the Bag down for a moment to speak. "We've both seen maps and stuff of your world, while we were online the other day, so I thought it'd be nice to show you ours!"

"Thanks, Shadow." Taylor seemed oddly touched by that, standing up and lifting the bag to bring it further into the room. Shadow sat down next to her, curling her tails around three of her paws, lifting the last to open the bag.

"So, yeah, there's a lot of stuff in here sometimes, because for some weird reason this thing can hold a lot more than it's supposed to, but the map doesn't seem to affect how much we can have in there, even though there's a limit to it." Shadow shrugged, while Danny and Taylor looked down at it in confusion. "No-one really gets it either, but it fits 48 items in there no matter the size of them, and nothing has weight. It's very weird, but whatever." Shadow reached into the bag, pulling out a rolled up bit of paper. "And this is the Wonder Map. It's absolutely awesome when we use it back home, since we can never get lost." She grinned, unrolling it, before pausing. "Huh."

"Huh?" Eon asked, looking away from the clock for a moment. "What's up?"

"The map-" Shadow started, but she didn't need to finish. Eon spotted it, jumping down from the chair he was in and pacing over.

It had gone completely blank, not even a sign of the markings that normally showed hidden areas to them.

"How on earth…?" He muttered, looking at it. Gently, he lifted it with his telekinesis, frowning and twisting it this way and that. "I've never heard of something like this happening before."

"D'you think it's because we're on another world?" Shadow questioned, coming around to examine the blank page as well. "I mean, maybe the magical whatever that makes it work only works there?"

"Maybe…" Eon sighed. "It'd be a shame, though. I'd've liked to show you both…" Letting the sheet fall to the ground, he batted at it irritably.

"I would've liked to see it." Taylor nodded, touching the corner gently, with some sadness.

The Wonder Map sparkled, then shone.

"Whoa!" All four of them recoiled sharply, shielding their eyes as the paper shone brighter and brighter for no apparent reason, before fading with a suddenness that seemed to suck the light from the room.

"What was that?" Danny half asked, half demanded, leaning forwards. The rest of them followed, peering at the map, which was still gently sparkling.

Slowly, lines began drawing themselves on the sheet, a smallish square box appearing first, the rest of it following outwardly in a web, some lines criss-crossing the others, more and more of the squares and rectangles being added to it.

It took almost a minute for the entire page to be filled, with the signature clouds of the unknown on the edges. Still staring in confusion, Eon touched the map again, flinching as another flicker followed.

"Look…" Shadow breathed, pointing.

The other three looked. On the first square that had formed, a circle with what looked like wings had appeared, the centre of it gaining a purple, crystal-like object.

"That's our badge." Eon frowned. "How on earth…"

"I think the map's picked up our new world." Shadow guessed, poking at it. "I think it's gonna try doing the same thing it normally does, and walk us around?"

"I wonder if it would show Somer's Rock?" Taylor asked, amazement in her voice. Eon bit his lip.

"Normally we put the mission request on the map and it tells us where we need to go," he explained, looking at it curiously. "I don't know how that would even begin to work properly here…" He trailed off as another badge emblem appeared on the map, floating in the middle of the clouded section. "Huh."

"All I had to do was poke it while thinking about where I needed to be." Shadow looked mildly incredulous. "No mission request, no need for the badge, just poke it."

"At least you won't need to spend very long looking for the place online, if you could even find it there." Danny put in, looking at the map curiously. "The clouds vanish, you said?"

"When we explore the area, normally. Or get permission to go there if you're in the Guild." Eon repeated, nodding.

"Then I suppose the three of you ought to get ready for your meeting and go take a look, don't you?" All three of the team looked away from the map and up at the clock, before Taylor nodded.

"Sure, dad." The bug using Cape nodded softly. "Eon, Shadow, do you need to stop by the base first, or...?"

"No, we have everything we need here. I don't think we'd need much of what's in the base for a meeting like this." Eon replied. "We'll just take the bag with us, but we won't need anything else."

"Alright. I'll go get into costume, then." Eon and Shadow nodded, rolling up the map for the moment and putting it back into the Treasure Bag, which Eon carefully shifted to his back.

"Shadow, your scarf's upstairs too, right?" The shiny checked.

"Yeah, it's got both our badges on it for safekeeping." She agreed, quickly picking up what he wasn't saying. "C'mon, let's go get that, then you get to set up all the invisibility we'll need."

"What fun." He snarked in return, both of them quickly making their way back into the room they'd been lent for the night. Closing the door behind him with a nudge, he took the scarf from Shadow's weaker telekinesis and unpinned his badge, handing it back to let her tie it around her neck while he put his back on the bag, near his neck.

"I still don't get why you won't just get a scarf, Eon." Shadow muttered to him, fiddling with her own. "We could do that while we're here easily."

"Yes, yes, I suppose we could." Eon sighed, looking at it. "Or I could ask Taylor to weave something for me."

"That could be cool. I mean, _spider silk scarves_? So cool." Shadow smiled. "Bet there's some people back home that'd love to buy something like that."

"Pitch it to Ariados or something when we see them again." He recommended, turning towards the door at the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs. "C'mon, let's head back down and slip out the back. Might be an idea to set up a stable cloak that I can collapse onto us."

"You can do that?"

"I can do quite a bit, since those lessons with Zoroark." Eon shrugged, bouncing back down the staircase. "But yeah, that's one of the things I picked up."

"Can you make them solid?"

"No, that's something illusions can't do." Eon refuted. "No-one's can, I wouldn't think."

"What about Uxie's Groudon?" Shadow tilted her head. "Y'know, the one we got told about by-"

"That was a projection, not an illusion, and either way Uxie's a Legendary, so of course he'd be able to do things like that." He waved her off, heading towards the kitchen and the back door. "Different abilities and situations."

"I guess."

"Solid illusions sound like they'd be helpful." Danny commented, from where he was standing to one side with a mug. "You could use them to avoid getting into fights yourself."

"True, but we're used to it." Eon shrugged, inclining his head towards Shadow. "Taylor's not, admittedly, but we'll keep her safe until she is, and the best way to get used to it is to be in the middle of things."

"Unfortunately, yes." The man sighed. "Thank you for keeping her safe, at least."

"She's joined the team, she's my responsibility."

"And Eon takes that seriously." Shadow added. "So do I. We always do, when someone new joins up; it's just that Taylor's more fragile than most the Pokemon we work with so we keep more of an eye on her."

"Thank you for that. The thought of Taylor being right in the middle of a Cape fight terrifies me. She's an insect controller…"

"Yeah, a bit worrying. It's probably best if she sticks back." Shadow nodded. "She and I talked about that this morning, while you were all asleep. A good bit of support options, some defensive if she's ok killing her bugs, but not much offence aside from bites or stings."

"A good assessment of it all." Eon smiled. "So yes, keeping her back from battles is a good idea. Not _too_ far back, that would be an insult to her abilities, but in a place where her range can help without her getting into fights herself." Footsteps from the hall halted that conversation, Taylor walking through the door a few moments later in her costume, mask in one hand as she ran the other through her hair.

Eon suspected the spiders and other bugs were hidden deep in the dark mass for now.

"Ready to go?" She asked nervously.

"We are. Are you?" Shadow padded over, looping once around her feet and looking up with concern. "This is gonna be a bit of a big one."

"Yeah, I know. I'll manage, I think."

"Just let us do the talking, if you'd like." Eon said.

"I can feed you lines if they need to talk to you that much." Their Vulpix companion offered. "It'll be a bit difficult, but I managed it in front of Bakuda and no-one noticed."

"They were a bit further away than they will be today, though." Shadow shrugged.

"I'll manage." Taylor told her, straightening and pushing her shoulders back. "So, we just follow the map?"

"It'll reveal more of the area as we get closer, but just walking towards the badge symbol will help guide us, yeah." Eon agreed. "Mask up, then, and I'll cloak us all."

"Ok." She nodded, smiling at her father. "I'll see you later, dad."

"I don't think we'll be gone for too long, but we might end up going for a patrol after the meeting, if there's time." Eon mentioned.

Danny raised an eyebrow, and he inclined his head towards Taylor, who was now pulling on her mask. The man nodded slightly, a small smile on his lips.

"That's fine, just don't get into too much trouble. While you're gone… maybe I'll look into getting a new computer or something for you, Taylor." The now masked hero looked over in surprise. "It might help your work. Speaking of work, I'd prefer if you didn't skip school to go patrolling too often, or if you did you warned me so I could organise a sick day or something. Or have more time off than you do patrolling publicly."

"It _would_ look a bit suspicious if Swarm was only out in the day when Taylor was ill." Eon sighed. "At least today's Saturday, so there's no school. And it's possible it'll be cancelled on Monday, too." While Danny admitted that he wasn't entirely certain, since he had no idea of exactly where all of the damage to buildings was from Bakuda's attack, and Eon was sceptical due to how bad the school looked, it was always a possibility that the school would be closed, letting them have time to patrol.

"Actually… that's something I'd like to talk to you about, dad." The Cape said softly. Danny glanced at the clock.

"Later, little owl. You have a meeting in three hours to get too, and who knows how often you'll get lost on the way."

"With the Wonder Map, probably less than you'd expect." Eon told him, smiling. "But you're right. Come on, girls, let's get moving over to Somer's Rock." With a touch of telekinesis, he lifted the map out of his bag, looking over it carefully for the correct direction. "We'll be under cloak the entire time- or at least as long as I can hold it. Shadow, are you staying, or…?"

"I'll go ahead a bit. Not much, but I'll find us a route forwards and around things." She decided. "Let me see the map?" Eon held it out to her, and she examined it for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, that's no problem. Pretty sure I can keep us all off the main roads, if you'd like?"

"Good idea." Eon acknowledged. "Let's go. Mr Hebert, we'll see you soon."

"Good luck, and don't let them push you. If you can gain control of the conversation, do so, but don't try threatening them. Negotiating from a position of power is good, even in a neutral zone, and you can bet the Protectorate will be aware of that." Eon accepted that advice with another nod, then led the group over to the door and wrapped them all in a cloak.

"Come on, let's get over to this place, then." Eon smiled backwards at them both. Swarm still looked tense, but she was standing straight and proud, one hand drifting unconsciously towards the badge pinned to her chest while bugs were making their way out into her hair. Shadow was relaxed, looking around as if bored, but Eon could easily tell that she was ready to deal with the heroes they were about to talk to.

All three made their way to the fence, slipping through with ease, then Shadow vanished into a mixed charcoal colour and darted away, leaving Eon to tighten the cloak around himself and Swarm before following her trail.

* * *

Danny looked out of the still open door silently, knowing that they had probably already left despite not having spotted the gate opening.

He assumed Eon's illusions had taken care of that.

Sighing, he closed the door and leaned against the counter and toyed with the empty mug, before placing it in the sink and wandering to his study. Closing that door as well, he sat down heavily and opened the lowest drawer with the key sitting under another mug, pulling out the leather-bound book and skimming across the pages, finally halting on one around the middle.

It was a picture of Taylor and Emma, sitting on a blanket in the back yard of the house with plates of sandwiches and glasses of lemonade balanced carefully so they wouldn't fall over on uneven ground or if the blanket slipped when they inevitably started messing about. They'd been about eight then, enjoying a sunny day while all the parents were a little busy. The picture had been taken by Danny when he'd gone to check on them, since he'd heard one of the girls wander into the house a few minutes before, making him peer out of the kitchen window before carefully reaching for the camera he'd left on the side earlier that morning.

Emma was sitting very carefully on the blanket, with a pair of butterflies perched on her hair, while Taylor was cross-legged next to her and giggling slightly, a bit of ham in the palm of her outstretched hand being offered to a grey fox, which was slowly and nervously edging towards her, sniffing the air.

Danny had stared at them all, amazed, before carefully snapping a picture of the strange scene to show Annette later. The woman he'd married had stared at it for a few minutes, looking closely at the fox and butterflies as if there was something strange about them- well, stranger than them all approaching the girls so calmly- before smiling and making a joke that both girls looked to have a promising future in animal care, if this sort of thing was what they were hiding.

She'd then promptly gone to the two, relaxing in the front room and giggling to each other, and asked about their day, immediately being regaled with the story of the fox and butterflies, soon followed by other incidents that they'd launched into once Annette had commented on that being quite unusual.

Like the time with the three cats at Alan's, or that pair of dogs and the bird when they were at the park and no-one was watching them, or the time where Taylor swore she'd seen a tiny yellow bee fumble past on gentle wings, with a bunch of tiny yellow dots on the bushes next to it moving alongside that'd all stopped and seemed to look as Taylor and Emma walked by…

Danny had taken that to just be confirming Annette's joke about the two girls; perhaps they'd've ended up as vets, or animal trainers- he'd even thought about speaking to Alan and seeing if they should offer that to the girls, once they were a bit older, to see if it was something they might enjoy. Annette, on the other hand, had listened closely and seriously, taking in all of the stories, and in the end smiled with amusement and asked that the girls be a bit more careful, since you never knew what might happen with animals, and she didn't want something to go bad at all for them. They'd nodded, with the sort of immortal air that eight year olds had, and gone back to their chatter as Annette slipped away again, a thoughtful frown slipping onto her face for a little while as she watched.

"I wonder, Annette…" He whispered into the silence of the room, still staring at the picture. "Did you notice something I didn't then? About the girls… or maybe about the animals?" Danny frowned; the only link he could possibly see would be the bee and the butterflies, both bugs which is what her powers connected her too, but Taylor had only Triggered recently and he doubted that powers could affect people before they Triggered… and that still wouldn't explain the dogs or cats or birds or that fox, or anything else that the girls had mentioned that afternoon. "The girls, probably. Still odd… maybe Taylor would still be willing to try for some career involving animals. She might have fun with that… it'd give her something fun outside of the Cape stuff, at least."

Naturally, nothing answered him.

With a sigh, Danny closed the book and locked it away, before standing to go and get his coat. If his daughter was going to be out with her friends for more than four hours at least, he might as well go out and take a look at getting some new computers.

And, as much as he hated the idea, a pair of phones too. It would be a good idea to be able to reach Taylor if something happened, or for her to be able to reach him if something went wrong on patrol or she was stopping with her team overnight or something. The money might be difficult, but he'd find a way to manage. This was important to Taylor, so he'd do what he could to help her with it all.

* * *

 **Alright! Look guys, an update that's on time! A miracle!**

 **Anyway, lot's of talking in this chapter, but that's the price of set up I suppose. Next time, on _Shadow, Eon, Worm_ ; more talking. And some confused people.**


	11. Chapter 10

**A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 10.**

 **Wandering, thinking, and meeting.**

* * *

"Question?" Swarm asked lowly, crouching in the alleyway next to the two Pokemon.

"Yeah?"

"Where the hell _are_ we?" She looked out the end of it, still under Eon's cloak, and up and down the street. "I don't think I've ever been here before."

"Really?" Eon raised an eyebrow at her, while Shadow fumbled with the latch on the bag. "Huh. I'd've thought you would've been around a lot of the city."

"Well, ok, maybe I have been here before, but I don't remember it. I wouldn't have a reason to come here as a kid, though maybe we drove through on the way somewhere else and I just can't remember." Swarm shrugged, crouching and holding the flap of the Treasure Bag open. Shadow gave her a thankful look, reaching in to grab the Wonder Map and roll it open. Eon caught the other end in his telekinesis and took it from her, holding it flat in the air as they all watched the clouds covering the edge of the Map- including the place they were at- fade away, new lines drawing around them to show the city.

"Ok, that's fine, not like we can't use the Map." Eon smiled up at her, then went back to the paper. "So, we're _here_ … so, we leave this alley, turn left, then go down the street for a while, then left again into the next alley."

"Somer's Rock actually isn't as far away as I thought it would be." Shadow commented, as Eon rolled the Map up again and handed it to Swarm to put in the bag. "I mean, some place for Capes to meet up neutrally to talk? I'd have expected it to be, like, on the very edge of town, or something, just in case something goes _really_ wrong and a fight happens."

"I think they rely on the hope that no-one wants to risk a fight in case they get banned from the pub." Swarm guessed. "Like we've said, Somer's Rock is _the_ meeting place for Capes if they want to avoid a fight, so no-one wants to be known as _'the Cape that got banned from Somer's Rock'_ and they keep the peace instead." Then she shrugged. "Not sure, but that's what I'm going with."

"Fair enough. Back home, there's plenty of places with weird reasoning behind them, like the underground market in Newground- that's one of the villages, by the way, kind of far away from where we live but a nice place we stopped at on one really long mission outlaw-hunting- that had no reason to be there. It wasn't illegal, nothing strange was happening, and there was plenty of room to have the market on the surface around the edge of the village or something, but they just decided they wanted it below ground."

"That was a fun place, though." Shadow put in. "The lanterns looked really sweet. And it was mostly run by Pokemon that liked the dark, so in the end it worked out well."

"Your world sounds fun." Swarm said, smiling behind her mask.

"It could be, yeah. I mean, there's times it's terrifying, but mostly it's fun." The three of them went silent as they slipped out of the alleyway and into the crowd, Eon and Swarm standing close together to keep the cloak as small as possible while Shadow held onto her own cloak a little further ahead. Ducking into the next alley along, the Vulpix sighed.

"We're gonna be doing this a lot, aren't we? Why not just give Swarm the Map and let her guide us?"

"Because that makes far too much sense, and we still have basically three hours to get there, so we could just do whatever until then since we basically know where we're going." Swarm replied sarcastically, kneeling next to Eon to take the Map out of the bag again. "Alternatively, we just weren't thinking properly."

"Either-or." Eon flicked his tails in a shrug as she unrolled the Map, waiting a moment for the clouds to move again, then nodding.

"Ok, how're we doing the cloaks, then?" She checked. "Is Shadow doing her own one still but I'm walking in front with Eon, or…?"

"We'll all just stick together and I'll cloak the three of us. I don't think it'll be too hard, and besides that we're not going to be fighting once we get there, so a small headache from holding illusions too long won't be that bad."

"If you say so." Swarm looked back at the Map for a moment, then out of the alleyway. "Are we all cloaked?"

"Yeah." He nodded, focusing. Shadow pressed herself next to Eon's side to make it easier to hold the illusion together, and Swarm carefully silenced as many of her bugs as she could before taking a step forward, leading them around a corner and through the rest of the alleyway. The Wonder Map in her hands shimmered, slowly updating itself as they walked, the clouds moving back off the edges while lines appeared, and Taylor smiled.

 _This does make it a lot easier to find places. Now I just hope we're not so early that we have to spend three hours doing nothing waiting for Assault and whoever else to show up._

* * *

"Ok, right here, and I think this is it." Swarm muttered lowly to the two vulpines pressed next to her legs. They were in a mostly abandoned street anyway, so if the cloak fell apart it wouldn't be too big of an issue, but Eon wanted to keep it up until they were going into the meeting, since it was better to look around that way for them all.

"That's it?" Shadow looked up that the barely-legible, tattered sign on the small building. The outside was worn and miserable- _not unlike a lot of the city,_ she thought sadly- but it didn't look too bad. It was unassuming, which Shadow hadn't expected from a building where Capes frequently visited.

Though it made sense, given that it was a neutral zone.

"Yeah, that's it, according to the Map." Swarm nodded, holding it out to show the little fox that the two badges were almost exactly across from each other. "If you'd like, you can take the Map and run over there under cloak to check."

"No, I trust you to've read the Map right." Shadow smiled. "So, now what? We've got, like, two hours."

"Two hours twenty." The Cape corrected, looking at the phone she'd pulled from nowhere obvious. "And whatever, I guess. We could go wander around looking for things to do, or crimes to deal with, if you'd like. Or maybe see if there's any obvious gang bases around. We could mark them and come back tonight or something."

"Hey, since the Map's all different now, d'you think we could use it to mark bases we want to come back to, so we don't have to rely on finding them ourselves later?"

"That… would be cool." Eon frowned, taking the Map from Swarm. "Let's see…" Touching the corner, he focused on making a marker on Somer's Rock. The Map flashed, then the version of the badge marking where the pub was vanished, replaced by a little yellow dot. "We can mark places now, I guess."

"That's useful, but if we mark somewhere and someone else find that Map that's not in our team, they might be able to find places that we don't want them to." Taylor thought aloud, kneeling down again. Eon hummed, nodding, then tapped the Map again.

The marker vanished.

"There we go. We can hide the markers on the Map when we're not using it, then..." Touching it, the dot reappeared. "We can turn them back on when we need them."

"Sounds like a plan." Shadow grinned. "Now, let's go look around a bit, yeah?"

* * *

The trio spent exactly two hours ten minutes wandering around the local area while invisible, dropping into different buildings and having a look around them. They found three drug stashes in one area alone, and promptly marked them for later searching before getting the hell out of the place every time.

"Arceus, those're disgusting." Shadow grumbled, as they left the third one. "Why on earth do humans feel the need to use those?"

"I don't know, Shadow, but I hate them too." Swarm replied. "They make me feel nervous."

"Well, we can deal with them later on, can't we?" Eon smiled at them both over his shoulder, guiding them into an alleyway nearby so he could take the rolled up Map from Swarm and mark the building they'd left. "We'll just burn it all under cloak after raiding the place."

"Thanks, Eon. It won't do much, but it'll get some of it off the streets in a way where the gangs can't just steal it back." The bug user said, before taking out her phone and glancing at the time. "Nearly time for the meeting. Back to Somer's Rock?"

"Yup." Shadow leaned over, tapping the Map and making the marker on Somer's Rock flare red, before Swarm took it back from her team leader. "Think you can guide us ok?"

"I managed most of the way before, so I think so." She told them, looking down at it for a moment and turning to orient herself in the maze of back alleys. "The cloak's up?"

"Up and fine."

"Follow me, then."

* * *

Five minutes later, the three were standing back across the street from the entrance to the pub.

"Is anyone there?"

"I can't tell." Swarm admitted. "There's not enough bugs to get a decent picture of everything in there, especially since I don't know who's come."

"Should I go take a look?" Shadow offered, crouching down as if to dart over.

"Go ahead." Nodding, the Vulpix cloaked herself carefully, vanishing completely from view, while Eon and Swarm waited.

"If they aren't there yet, do we go in before them?" The Cape asked lowly, kneeling down to her leader's level.

"We may as well. If we're before them or after them, it's really no loss. After, and it's excusable with us being new to town and never having been here before, before and it just shows that we're willing and eager to talk with them." Eon paused. "Well, willing, at least. It could be less eagerness and more a wish to get things over with." Swarm snorted, making Eon look over. "Relax. You won't really need to say anything in the end, either. I can do most the talking, Shadow can do the rest, you might just need to mention your control over bugs and why you chose to use them as you did, but you can basically stay silent if you want. Shadow and I know how to do a report without giving away all of our abilities."

"Alright, thanks. Let me know if I'm going too far, or something?"

"That'll be Shadow's job, I still need to learn her sound displacement method, but she can feed you lines if you think it'd help."

"It… yeah, it might." She nodded. "It's just a bit nerve wracking."

"Yeah, I know. We were similar, giving our first exploration report to our Guild. They can have high standards sometimes, and you never know if you've met them or not." He sighed "In this case it's a bit worse, since while with the Guild questions are only asked to help make sure they have everything they need from the report, here they'll be fishing for information, looking to catch us off guard to learn more about us."

"That… doesn't help, but… I kinda mean more because I admired them a lot as a kid. I always wanted to be a hero, so I've looked up to people in the Wards and Protectorate for a while." Eon raised an eyebrow, chuckling.

"You don't think we were the same? The Guild had a number of fairly well known teams, Swarm, even if they were only locally known. And when we joined up with that Guild expedition, there was a really famous- as in, _nationally_ famous- team that joined us."

"Why would a nationally famous team join up with a training guild's trip?"

"We were heading somewhere of some pretty great interest, so there were a couple of teams that wanted to come along and help out. This is also known as nicking some of the glory for the discovery we might make." Eon's dry tone made Swarm snicker. "Guildmaster Wigglytuff chose the team that he thought had the best reasons for coming along- although personal curiosity isn't the _best_ , exactly- to come with us."

"It sounds like fun."

"It was, though at first most the Guild were horribly nervous about being around them, since they were so famous. That was just awkward. One of the other teams broke the tension kinda by accident, since they wanted to ask about how they'd gotten so good, and it all went well from there, but the first little while…"

"It does sound like it was annoying."

"Just a touch. But don't worry about this. They're people too, so you just need to focus on that. Just let us answer everything we can, and only speak when you feel comfortable, or ask Shadow to feed you lines."

"I wouldn't mind doing that." The Vulpix told them both, dropping back into visibility inside the field Eon had set up. "I'll be waiting until you're asked a question, but I can whisper stuff to you and you'll just have to repeat it."

"I think I can do that."

"Good." Shadow turned to Eon. "There's no-one in there except the bar person, so if you want to go in and pick a table for them then we can."

"Sounds like a plan to me." The grey Ninetales nodded, taking a few steps back with the pair in tow before dropping the cloak and going back, making it look as though they'd just arrived before heading over the street. Shadow easily dropped into pace behind him, standing as his second, but Swarm watched confusedly before trailing after Shadow closely.

 _"That's fine, Swarm,"_ Shadow whispered through her displacement illusion. _"You're the rookie, so you don't need to worry about where you are. We'll show you properly later, though."_

"It was easier before." She muttered.

 _"That's because it wasn't 'formal.' It didn't matter exactly where you were, since no-one would know where you're supposed to stand. For more formal stuff, it's lead, second about two steps behind and slightly on the left, third on the right and a step behind the second, and the rest in the centre trailing."_ Nodding slightly, Swarm drifted over to where the third was apparently supposed to be, hesitating a moment. _"That'll do. You're not really third, since there's only three of us, but you can have that spot anyway. Eon won't mind, and I don't think anyone on this world is gonna know formal Rescue squad etiquette anyway."_

"Is there a rulebook for this or something?"

 _"Yeah, but I don't think we have it on us. We'll do our best to explain stuff later for you. Should've thought to do it earlier, but to be honest I don't know how often we'll need it."_

"Better to know and not need it, though."

 _"True."_ Eon pushed the door open and walked in to the dim pub, looking around for a moment before continuing, Shadow and Swarm filing in after him and letting the door swing shut. At the bar, the woman seated there went to get up, but Eon shook his head, leading the two over to one of the tables on the far side with a good view of the door and seating them so that their back was to the wall. Shadow headed over to his left, edging close to his tails, and Swarm leaned over slightly.

"So now we wait." Eon murmured lowly. "Any sign of them with your bugs, Swarm?"

"Nothing so far, but they're probably on the way." She mumbled back. "I've got a lot of bugs between us and the PRT building, and again over near the Rig, so I think I'll manage to spot them when they show up."

"Good." Eon settled back carefully, twitching his tails into a more comfortable position around his paws, which prompted Shadow to brush her own over to her left, the first three around her paws while the others rested near her back.

Swarm watched them for a moment, then folded her legs and leaned back, head on the wall, looking the picture of relaxed.

Outside, a small army of bugs were running back and forth in nervousness, but it helped her feel better, at least.

* * *

Leaning back in the chair behind his desk, the newly-freed Dragon of Kyushu frowned deeply.

The _Kyuubi_ and its kitsune youngling were once again a point of interest to him, it seemed. Not as if they hadn't been during his short time in the PRT's jail, bound for the Birdcage, but then he'd had little else to think about aside from them. Now, he was back in his place, and he had a gang to run, as well as the mess caused by Bakuda's one day rampage to deal with.

Lung growled at the thought. He'd disliked Bakuda from the beginning, once it became clear that she was merely a glory hound with an ego problem, but after all the work he'd put into recruiting her he had been loath to say he was wrong to do so and dispose of her, so the bomb Tinker had stayed and irritated him. She had provided a useful distraction the previous day, allowing Lee to attack the transport and break him out, but Lung was still rather glad that she was going into captivity in his place.

Which brought him back to his original thought, the kitsune. He was still no closer to knowing anything about their origins- not that he expected to, in honesty, having been in jail for several days starting on their debut and with no-one in the gang knowing about them to do any looking. The only thing he had was the report of the pair's official and public debut, merely two days before, where some of his ABB had been in the vicinity of the bank attacked.

Shifting forwards, he read over the report again, his frown slightly deeper than before. The Undersiders had attacked the bank, apparently a robbery, and the Wards along with Glory Girl had shown up- Glory Girl only appearing because her sister was in the bank, it seemed- and struggled to fight off the dogs owned by Bitch for a time before the fight was intruded upon by the kitsune.

The pair had recruited the bug user they had saved, it seemed, as she had arrived with them at the scene and listened to the commands of the _Kyuubi_ , the one apparently called Eon. The six-tailed kitsune, referred to as Shadow, had taken over fighting the dog that Aegis had been trying to deal with, shouting at it before just… talking and staring.

Lung frowned further. _That sounds rather like how she defeated me. A kitsune whose gift allows them to merely speak, and their opponents fall before them. I don't recall any legends of such things… but then again, they might not even be Inari kitsune at all._ Shaking his head, he continued reading.

Eon had instructed the bug Cape, using the name Swarm, to assist Gallant and Kid Win with their fight, and he had joined the battle against the second dog Vista and Glory Girl were against. Tattletale had lead the Undersiders to retreat, breaking whatever spell Shadow had placed on the dog, and caused both Eon and Swarm to attack, the latter with a bug swarm and the former with some sort of purple energy, before they escaped. The kitsune had been observed speaking with the Wards for a while, then the police, before vanishing completely into thin air, as though they had never been there.

Kitsune _were_ well known for their capabilities in illusions, though, so that was less surprising.

Sighing, Lung leaned back again, rubbing his forehead. The kitsune could be the ones from the legends; they showed a fair number of the abilities of ones, despite the little that had been seen, and they looked the part as well. But they could easily just be a pair of Case 53's that got amusingly lucky with their shapes and teamed up together, or a pair of Changers with the same condition.

Yet something told him that wasn't the case. _Something,_ some strange instinct, told him that this wasn't some kind of Parahuman thinking it would be amusing to make links to the kitsune legends and run around Brockton Bay. Something told him that it was more than that.

Now if only he could figure out _what…_

With a groan, he shook his head to clear it and called for Lee. The only other Cape in his gang appeared nearly ten minutes later, time Lung used to read over some more of the reports that had accumulated in his absence. He was just reading about an incident on the edge of his territory, near the Merchants, but gladly put that aside when he saw Lee, holding another stack of papers in his hands and bowing.

"Lung-sama." He greeted. "I have a report from your spies within the PRT." Interested and curious, he took them, believing that they would likely be about Bakuda's capture.

The read took five minutes, at which point Lung turned back and read it again, then did so a third time with a pen in hand, making notes on a spare sheet of paper as he did so. Once he was satisfied that what he had read was remembered, he put the report to one side and studied his notes carefully.

 _Illusions, once again putting someone to sleep by talking, though in this case it was during an argument, so perhaps it does not matter how she does it as long as she is focused… but it did take much longer, maybe her own emotional state effects things as well, and her anger made it more difficult. Possible reinforcements available in the form of these illusions, although whether they can physically affect anything is yet to be seen. This Swarm appears to be a typical Master and staying back to provide backup in the form of minions, but the kitsune are likely to try and remedy that, given that she is their team mate. She seems to already have been taught how to act, too, at least to the point of knowing to shut up and let others handle the things they're better at._ Which was another thing that made Lung think that the two kitsune were more than just a simple joke or prank. They had the experience in talking, which came across quite well in the police report from the bank robbery and in the report from Bakuda's capture. _And Eon has some sort of pyrokinesis, at least in the way of forming fire if not necessarily controlling it at all, with those small fireballs he created for light…_

"Interesting," he completed aloud, looking at Lee. "Very interesting indeed."

"What do you command, Lung-sama?" Lee asked, tilting his head slightly.

"Leave Bakuda alone. If she is able to escape, she can, but we will not attempt to break her out as well. She was dangerous, and it is too much risk for little reward to release her." He decided quickly, brushing that off. "As for her captors… leave them alone. Spread the word to the rest of the gang, if they are to encounter either of the kitsune, or their partner the insect controller, they are to retreat, or failing that, surrender. Do not engage them. Arrange for pictures to make their way around so that they know who to avoid. Make sure _everyone_ knows. I will take no excuses."

"Yes, Lung-sama." Lee bowed, then vanished in a teleport, the clone disintegrating a few seconds later. Lung turned his head back to the reports, gazing blankly at the one about Bakuda for a minute.

He still had no idea whether this was all some elaborate prank set up by someone in the city, or if it really was legitimate like something seemed to tell him it was, but either way he wanted to keep his gang out of the way of those kitsune. Even if it hurt his business in the long run, he'd rather that than find out that there were gods in the city that he'd managed to offend.

At least he could make up for any possible harm done. Offending a god was reasonably likely to end your life.

* * *

"…so primarily, illusion work and arrogance." Eon finished, shaking his head slightly to flick his fur back. Shadow was still sitting on his left, looking perfectly fine with the fact that she'd been there for nearly an hour explaining what she'd done to Bakuda- though not in perfect detail, like the exact way Hypnosis worked- while Swarm was bolt upright, one leg folded over the other, completely uncaring that she'd been seated in silence the entire time they were there. Shadow and Eon had worked hard to field the questions sent their way, and the three Parahumans representing the Protectorate at their meeting- Assault, Battery, and Miss Militia- had gladly taken to it, leaving Swarm out of the questioning when it became clear that either of the two vulpines could answer them just as well.

Eon could vaguely hear bugs running around outside, betraying his newest recruit's nervousness, but he couldn't blame her for that. Reporting to someone more powerful and with more status than you could be terrifying the first time- and the rest, in fact, if they did it right.

From the other side of the table, Miss Militia, sitting opposite Shadow, nodded.

"I see." She said quietly, looking intrigued.

"It sounds very impressive." Battery, the only one who Eon knew hadn't been at the scene, put in. "Especially, and I mean no offence, for someone so new to the Cape scene."

"We may be new to the Cape scene, ma'am," Shadow replied respectfully, "But Eon and I are no strangers to battlegrounds, and Swarm is highly knowledgeable in the local situation, so I would say that we have at least some experience in dealing with hostile foes."

Eon carefully suppressed a smile at her answer, and the look on what could be seen of the Cape's faces, before he took over. "As Shadow said, we are no strangers to battle, and we well know our limits. At that point, it's not truly necessary to know those of your opponent aside from at least the bare minimum. Enough of a distraction and a careful application of a taunt or two and you can easily get the rest, after all. And with the attitude of Bakuda, it was far simpler than I had expected, in truth."

"At which point it was pretty simple to defeat her, just by keeping her attention focused on me with the argument, and stopping her from wanting to look elsewhere by having the illusions and bugs look hostile enough to make her feel the need to keep an eye on them." Shadow smirked, satisfied, and absently flicked one of her tails.

"It's still pretty impressive, though." Assault smiled. "Still, I think that's everything…?" He glanced sideways at his companions, inclining his head. Both of them nodded.

"I've got nothing else to ask."

"Neither do I." Miss Militia looked over the three of them, a smile in her eyes. "And Battery was certainly correct. For a new Cape team- even if you had previous combat experience in some way- it's still a very impressive victory."

"Thank you, ma'am." Eon lightly returned the smile as the three Capes on the opposite side of the table began preparing to leave, signalling subtly as they did for his team to stay seated for a moment. "I'm glad we were able to help. Bakuda was… not a particularly brilliant person, from what little I gathered about her, and I am glad we were able to get her somewhere where she won't be able to deal any more damage."

"We'll make sure she'd kept somewhere safe. I'm fairly sure she'll be going to the Birdcage at the very least." Miss Militia told them. Eon made a mental note to check with Swarm about what the Birdcage was, nodding.

"Good. She ought not be going anywhere for a very long time, I should hope."

"The Birdcage is inescapable, and with what we've seen so far of what she's done there's not a chance she won't be heading there." Battery said.

"That is good." Shadow smiled. "Well wishes for the rest of your day."

"And yours." Assault grinned at them in return before the three of them left the building. Eon listened for a moment, hearing a motorcycle start up, then relaxed, nodding to Swarm and Shadow. The Vulpix jumped down from the chair and shook herself, yawning a little as she did, while Swarm stretched.

"You girls ok?"

"I'm fine, Eon." Shadow nodded, as her leader stepped down next to her. "That was different to the Guild interviews… guess it makes sense, though, since we were arresting a criminal… but it was kinda… short."

"That was short?" Swarm asked, sounding incredulous behind the insect buzz. "Jeez. I feel bad for you two."

"To be fair, we quite often do multiple things in the same dungeon." Eon explained, leading the way to the door. With an absent use of Extrasensory, he placed a few bills from the bag onto the counter while Swarm opened the door for them, then he continued, "See, we might go to the job board one day and see three jobs in the same dungeon. Could be anything; criminal hunts, missing Pokemon, item searches… anyway, we'd take all three of those jobs to save three teams heading into the same dungeon, and do them all at once. The problem was, when we got back, we'd need to fill in three reports for the dungeon exploration, and if we did go and catch an outlaw, we had to speak to Officer Magnezone to give a report about that as well."

"Sounds like fun."

"It was worse if we did multiple outlaw missions." Shadow grinned, shaking her head. "So annoying sometimes."

"It was always fun, though." Eon decided, leading them into an alleyway and pausing to layer a cloak over them all. "Still, are you actually alright, Swarm?"

"Yeah, I'm good." She exhaled sharply, leaning against the wall as she did. "It was… nerve-racking, more than yesterday was with Assault after Bakuda, but I'm alright."

"Good. Want to go home, or would you rather we wandered and did some more criminal hunting to relieve the stress?"

The bug Cape paused for a few minutes. "I think home, if you don't mind. I'd like to talk to dad more… we have a lot to catch up on, from the last few months."

"That's fine." Eon nodded. "All together, then, and we'll head home. Shadow, the Map?"

"Got it." Shadow opened the bag, handing the Map to Swarm, who unrolled it and crouched next to her leader. Eon touched the edge, waiting a moment for the marker to appear over Swarm's house, before letting the trio move off, following the Map.

* * *

"That was interesting." Alice said over the comms, as the group of three moved back towards the PRT building.

"It was, wasn't it?" Ethan nodded, bouncing off a wall casually. "They seemed really serious and professional. I think I can see how that little one, Shadow, managed to take down Lung."

"She was rightfully proud of her part in it all." Hannah added. "And if she took down Lung in the same way… Bakuda never stood a chance against her, did she?"

"That's one team I'm definitely not going to try fighting, that's for sure." Ethan grinned. "And we should probably warn Clock off of trying to prank them when they meet next, or something."

"Never thought I'd hear _you_ say that."

"You wound me, Puppy." Hannah sighed, and Ethan smirked at the almost-audible roll of her eyes.

"Come on, you two. Let's get back to base so we can write up this report for the Director."

"Sure thing, Militia." He landed in the street for a moment, just long enough to flash her a grin, then took off towards the PRT building, wondering quietly about the trio of apparently new Capes he'd just spoken with.

* * *

 **And end chapter 10! This marks the end of the first arc, too, the setup arc, where Eon and Shadow get oriented into their new world and Swarm gets used to being the newbie Cape in a team that's used to weird abilities, though not exactly powers.**

 **It will be from here that I begin taking large steps into burning some of canon's stations, though they'll be popping up from time to time, and adding new ones in between!**

 **Hope you're all enjoying this so far, and I'll see you next time!**


	12. Interlude- PHO

**A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm Interlude 2.**

 **PHO interlude 1: Introduction, Empire, Healing.**

* * *

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 **Topic: New Cape Team?**  
 **In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay**  
 **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Posted On Apr 14th 2011:

So, an interesting thing happened today.

I, along with a number of other people, was at the bank- Brockton Bay Central Bank, to be specific to the folks not from around here- when the Undersiders happened to decide to stage a robbery.

Wonderful timing, right?

Anyway, things went down, the entire team's there, when Tattletale mentions that the Wards've shown up- most of them, apparently Shadow Stalker wasn't about. Grue and Regent went out to try dealing with them, plus two of Hellhound's dogs, while Tattletale worked on loading the stuff they'd taken onto the third dog there.

Little while later, she glances out the door, then panics, yelling for Hellhound to call off her dogs and the team runs for it.

Thought that was a bit weird, then Glory Girl shows up. Turns out Panacea was there too, so maybe they figured that out and decided they needed to leave pretty quick?

Anyway, they're gone, cops show up, start interviewing everyone, standard fare, then I get outside and spot this.

So yeah, two foxes with a lot of tails and some tall person in a bug costume. Clearly new Capes, but I know nothing about them. Anyone got stuff to say?

 **Edit 1:** PoisionedCells has their names for us.

 **Edit 2:** Video from Singlet.

 **Edit 3:** A lot of information from Laotsunn, all very... interesting.

 **Edit 4:** The entirety of Team Inari has shown up in thread, answering questions for us.

 **(Showing page 1 of 48)**

► **PoisonedCells**  
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:

I don't know very much about all this, but a friend of mine was around as well. She apparently heard that they were _'quite famous'_ where they came from.

The littlest one, with six tails and brown fur, was called Shadow, and the larger fox was named Eon. He seemed to be team leader. The tall person was a girl, named Swarm.

► **Aloha**

Replied On Apr 14th 2011:

That Shadow girl was _so cute!_ I wonder if I'll get to meet them, she looked adorable!

► **Singlet**  
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:

She wasn't so adorable during the battle, I'll tell you that.

Actually, I'll show you that.

I mean, still cute, but what the hell?!

► **Antigone**  
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:

 _blinks_

Did... did I just watch the tiny fox shout at one of Hellhound's dogs? And _whoa_ , that voice was loud. How did that happen?

Anyway... that was cool. They seemed to pop up out of nowhere, too. How'd they do that?

► **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:

They just straight-up vanished at the end of it all, too. Shadow vanished a little bit before the others, and no-one seemed to notice it happening, then Eon said farewell to the Wards, shook Panacea's hand, glanced at Swarm and they both disappeared.

Everyone looked very confused, I'll tell you that.

► **Deimos**  
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:

I've heard rumours that they're apparently calling themselves Inari.

You know. Inari. Like the Japanese God, Inari.

So there's that.

► **Laotsunn** (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:

Oh. Holy shit.

Ok. This. This is... whoa.

So. For those of you here that have exactly zero knowledge of the Japanese legends, they're a mess, first off.

Inari is genderless, can be represented as a group of _Kami_ rather than just an individual, and is the patron to a lot of things. That's not as important, though. The thing that _is_ , is that Inari is known to be related to the kitsune.

Kitsune, as you may or may not be aware, are multi-tailed foxes. They gain a tail for every century they live, topping off at nine, and they become white or gold then, with 1000-year-old kitsune being considered basically _gods_. Kitsune are also known to have long lives and magical powers, normally shapeshifting and possession being the ones that pop up most regularly in stories, plus being really smart.

Inari is known to have white _Kyuubi_ (nine-tailed kitsune) as it's messengers, but it's possible that other, younger kitsune are involved as well, probably learning or whatever.

Not the point.

Anyway, we've got ourselves two foxes, specifically _kitsune_ , in the Bay. And they've named their team after _Inari_.

That's... well. At minimum, one hell of a power coincidence.

► **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:

 **Laotsunn** , thanks for the information. I've linked your post, and some of the stuff from people above, in the first post.

That _is_ one hell of a coincidence, though. Presumably when they got their powers they just ran with the idea?

Does anyone know if they're Case 53's, or just two really similar Changers?

► **Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:

According to the chat that we had just after the police had left, they're not Case 53's. Aegis asked and explained a bit, Eon said neither of them were, no tattoos at all, or amnesia.

Also, Shadow really was pretty cute. She told us a lot, too, but I don't know if I'm supposed to talk about it. It's kind of their business.

 **End of Page. 1,** **2** **,** **3** **...** **46** **, 47, 48**

 **(Showing page 27 of 48)**

► **Shadow** (Verified Cape) (Team Inari)  
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:

Hey all! Nice to meet you, even in a text format!

Swarm's helped me get a PHO account all set up, and she's just doing one for Eon too, but Eon's given me the job of being the main internet contact! That's super-cool, since you all seem interesting and it'll be nice to talk to you!

Um, right, answer people's questions, yeah?

So, we did name our team after Inari, but that was because we thought they were really cool, not because we look like kitsune. We only picked up Swarm recently, and I really like working with her. She looks kinda scary, but she's fun. Plus her powers work really well with ours, which is nice.

Eon has no relation to Inari, as we know, and we aren't Case 53's, as Vista said above. Speaking of, I don't mind repeating what I said to her earlier; basically, I just miss the fact that Eon and I, and some of our other friends, tended to terrify villains into giving up pretty fast, though we also did rescues and stuff, and that it was a bit weird to run into a bank robbery, since we didn't normally see people robbing banks and shops due to people being able to look after themselves.

Also, user Aloha, I'd quite like to meet you too! Maybe we'll run into you while we're on patrol!

Hopefully not by having to save you from something, though.

► **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:

Oh, **Shadow**! A pleasure to have you in the thread. Thanks for dropping by and volunteering to answer stuff, that's always nice.

Would you mind telling us a little more about yours and Eon's powers? And Swarm, if you're willing. People here're nosy, and we like speculating on powers, but it's also nice to have actual confirmation.

► **Answer Key**  
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:

Plus, there's some people here who like looking at powers, so they might figure out something you could possibly do that you've overlooked.

► **Shadow** (Verified Cape) (Team Inari)  
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:

I went and asked Eon, and Swarm, and they said they didn't mind, so sure!

Basically, I'm an illusion maker and pyrokinetic. I burn things and make things that aren't there. Or, sometimes, things that are there not there. Mostly I just throw fire at things, though. And I prefer talking out stuff over fighting, but I know that doesn't always work.

Eon's the same, but better at everything than me. His illusions are super cool, too, and he can do really neat tricks with fires. He's pretty serious sometimes, but he can be fun too.

Swarm's a bug user, which is neat. Kinda scary, but neat. And she can use _loads_ all at once, which is cool. She's _super_ serious, but that's ok, because she's still awesome.

► **AllSeeingEye**

Replied On Apr 14th 2011:

Nice to know, Shadow, and thanks for popping up.

What about that vanishing act you all pulled at the end of the video? Can you talk about that?

► **Shadow** (Verified Cape) (Team Inari)  
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:

Don't see why not, and neither does Eon. It's a cloak effect, part of our illusions, that lets us go invisible. It's kinda hard to do, but you can hold it for a while if you know what you're doing. And Eon really does, 'cause he's old and experienced.

► **Eon** (Verified Cape) (Team Inari)  
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:

Watch your mouth, pix.

But yes, the cloak is one of our more useful abilities, and unless you know what you're doing with it can be pretty dangerous. You could easily hurt yourself if you didn't do it right, or held it for too long when you can't handle it.

► **Swarm** (Verified Cape) (Team Inari)  
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:

Wow, Shadow, not sure whether I should be offended that I got such a short mention. Then again, you've been friends with Eon for ages, so I guess you would know more about him than me.

Anyway, hi, PHO! Nice to meet you all. Like she's already said, Shadow's going to be the main point of communication here, just because she's the one most interested in being online. Point your questions at her, though we'll obviously drop in to answer stuff more aimed at us.

► **Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:

Nice of you to join us people here, Team Inari! Which, by the way, is a cool name. Hopefully you'll be doing some work here in Brockton Bay, and maybe you'll actually enjoy your stay!

► **Eon** (Verified Cape) (Team Inari)  
Replied On Apr 14th 2011:

A pleasure to be here, Clockblocker. I hope our team will be able to work with yours again soon, hopefully in better capacity than was occurring earlier this afternoon.

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* * *

**Topic: Empire vs Protectorate and Inari!**  
 **In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay**  
 **Brocktonite03** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member)  
Posted On Apr 28th 2011:

Holy crap that was awesome. Kind of scary, but still awesome.

So, a little while ago, like an hour or so, Hookwolf and Cricket went tearing down the main street for some reason. No idea what the hell happened, but something'd set them off _bad_.

They're off down the street, someone obviously calls in the Capes, since Miss Militia, Dauntless and Triumph all showed up, and it all turns into a battle as the heroes tried to drag the others away from civilians.

Then these guys showed up.

Team Inari just jumped into the battle, ready and roaring, and holy crap are they incredible.

Here's the video I was able to get, which shows them in action, but for those who can't watch it right now...

Shadow just goes _right_ in against Cricket, joining Triumph in that fight, while Eon went with Dauntless and Miss Militia against Hookwolf. Swarm spent a lot of the battle drawn back, out of the way, but she was using her bugs to distract them both.

Shadow seemed to be doing something to Cricket's echolocation thing, going in and out of that cloak she can do, but Cricket seemed to be lashing out and nothing a lot, like she was hearing something. Swarm was using this to get in little hits against her, but it looked like her bugs were a bit lost against her sometimes, like they were confused. Triumph seemed a bit confused too, at first, but he took advantage of it pretty quick.

Shadow spent most the fight invisible, actually. Maybe she was trying to set something up but couldn't, or maybe she thought she was outmatched against Cricket and was hoping to just act as support along with Swarm? Still, she managed pretty well. She just popped up right at the end, too, and Cricket went _down!_ It looked like she barked or something, but whatever happened really knocked her for six, which let Shadow drop her and Triumph grab her.

The other battle, Eon's visible for pretty much the entire fight, and wow can he move! He basically lead Hookwolf on this merry chase around the place, throwing little fire orbs behind him from his tails, and at one point made a freaking _dragon_ pop up! That really startled Hookwolf, he froze right there which let Miss Militia nail him with something, then Eon came back around and set him on fire! That took him down pretty fast, so the three of them wrapped him up and the dragon thing vanished, at which point Swarm came down to join them and they looked over to see how Shadow and Triumph were doing.

That fight ended a minute later, the two of them dragging Cricket over, and Inari spent a couple more minutes talking with Miss Militia until a PRT van showed up and they loaded the Empire Capes up, then they vanished like they normally do at the end of an encounter.

Thoughts, everyone?

 **Edit 1:** Shadow came in thread to answer questions for us all.

 **(Showing page 1 of 296)**

► **ChocChipCookie**  
Replied On Apr 28th 2011:

Wow. That was... impressive, to say the least.

Watching the video there, Eon looked really neat. Did it look like his fur was sparkling to anyone else, or was that just me?

And I wonder what was up with those flames, too. They seemed to be sticking to Hookwolf, but they weren't burning out or anything.

► **Helotan**

Replied On Apr 28th 2011:

no, its not just you, his fur was sparkling. dunno why you noticed that tho.

and the flames werent dying out either. is strange, yeah.

► **GellSine**  
Replied On Apr 28th 2011:

Maybe it's a side effect of the Shaker power that's making them? Eon's a Cape, why _would_ the flames burn out if he didn't want to?

And I can't see what you're on about with the sparkles thing.

► **Arombee**  
Replied On Apr 28th 2011:

Hmm. I can _kind of_ see it...

But to be honest, I'm more interested in what Shadow's doing over with Cricket. Like, she was just gone for the entire fight?

► **bothad**  
Replied On Apr 28th 2011:

well they can go invisible we all knew that so i guess she was just doing that to try getting cricket

► **Answer Key**  
Replied On Apr 28th 2011:

Why would she even really bother with that, though? It's not like she doesn't have similar Shaker powers to Eon. Why not just set her on fire or something?

► **AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Apr 28th 2011:

In all fairness, from what we've seen of Team Inari so far, they're pretty careful not to cause damage to people that might be an issue. Shadow even seems to make it a point to do that weird healing bark every time they finish a fight and they're waiting for the police, just in case someone had a bad reaction to Swarm's bug. Maybe she just didn't want to risk setting Cricket on fire and possibly hurting her by accident? Or maybe she didn't want to risk hitting Triumph with the flames when he was trying to attack.

► **PoisonedCells**  
Replied On Apr 28th 2011:

Wait, Shadow has a healing bark? How the hell did I miss that?

► **Shadow** (Verified Cape) (Team Inari)  
Replied On Apr 28th 2011:

 **PoisonedCells** yup, I have a healing bark! I confirmed it in this post here, over on the thread that was speculating on our powers, but for the sake of clarity; I can only do it a certain number of times before I need a break, and it depends on my perception of an area- namely, what counts as a room. It's also actually easier to do a bunch of people at once, since that still only takes up one use of it.

 **ChocChipCookie** **Helotan** **GellSine** yeah, Eon's fur sparkles in the right light. It looks really pretty up close. And the flames don't burn out unless Eon wants them to, or I heal the effects of them. Eon can stop them being there, but the burns themselves stick about until I heal them.

 **Arombee** I was mostly playing distraction for the Cricket fight, to be honest. Triumph was more effective on the front of actually battling her, so I spent the time throwing my voice to confuse her about where I was. I was also making a really high pitched sound using my illusions and a couple things I picked up as a kid, which seemed to really mess her up, so I kept doing it.

The louder bark thing apparently has some sort of weird intimidation effect too, so I thought I should use that to try and knock her out.

 **Answer Key** **AllSeeingEye **you're right there ASE, I didn't want to accidentally hurt someone badly because I didn't have time to heal them, and that goes doubly so for someone who's on my side! That'd really suck.

Other than that, it was a pretty cool battle. I've fought people who use echolocation before, but Cricket's was really precise, way more than I expected. I think she does other stuff too, Triumph looked a bit off balance sometimes, and I could kinda hear some ringing in the background, like a really awful sounding bell. Looks like she can do other stuff too.

Also, it's nice that Triumph and the others didn't mind us dropping in on the battle like that. They looked like they could do with a hand, given how many people were in the area.

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► **FirstofMayuary**  
Replied On Apr 28th 2011:

Huh. That's cool. Thanks for the reply, Shadow!

And yeah, I missed hearing about the healing bark thing too. Are you planning on hospital volunteering next, by any chance? If you could count an entire floor as a room...

► **Shadow** (Verified Cape) (Team Inari)  
Replied On Apr 28th 2011:

Hey, that's something I hadn't thought of before. Could be a good idea, actually, trying to help people in that way too.

Swarm's told me before that this city has a healer here, too... maybe I should ask her if she'd be willing to spot for me once to see what I can and can't heal, if she's not too busy?

► **Panacea** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Apr 28th 2011:

It'd be nice of you to help, sure. The hospital can get pretty busy some days, and I tend to spend a lot of time there helping people.

I tend to be there most days, actually, so if you were to meet me somewhere maybe we could organise with the hospital for you to come in and help?

I've opened up a PM to continue this discussion in for you, if you'd like.

► **GellSine**  
Replied On Apr 28th 2011:

Maybe you should focus Shadow nearer the kiddy wards? I'm sure the littler kids that're stuck in there for whatever reason would love having a fluffy little fox doing the healing for them.

► **AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Apr 28th 2011:

I certainly can't see the hospital being too annoyed with getting a new healer in for when Panacea's away or something.

And thanks for that bit of confirmation, **Shadow**. I can understand being careful with your powers because you don't want to hurt anyone by accident. It's good to see, actually, though I have to wonder how Swarm was planning on dealing with that same issue?

► **Swarm** (Verified Cape) (Team Inari)  
Replied On Apr 28th 2011:

 **AllSeeingEye** I'd done a lot of research after I Triggered about allergies to stings and bites, and I was carrying Epi-pens to make sure that nothing went wrong.

I still carry them now, actually, because Shadow might not always be right next to me when we're dealing with something, so it's better for me to be prepared in case something happens and Shadow's not about.

► **Brocktonite03** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Apr 28th 2011:

That's a really good way of thinking, **Swarm**. There's no reason to get complacent about people's safety, after all, especially with a power as subtly dangerous as yours can be- no offense.

And Shadow, thanks for the mini essay answer about the battle. It's nice to hear from you, as always. I'll add a link to the post in on the original.

► **Chilldrizzle**  
Replied On Apr 28th 2011:

Hey, **Shadow** , any comment on the dragon thing Eon pulled off? I noticed that you kinda ignored that bit, and I'm curious?

► **Shadow** (Verified Cape) (Team Inari)  
Replied On Apr 28th 2011:

The dragon was just an illusion of Eon's, nothing special. It's something he's been practising a lot, actually, trying to get the movements right. It's kinda difficult sometimes, and looked really bad when you do it wrong.

And none taken, **Brocktonite03**. I know my fire's dangerous, and so does Eon. We'll be careful with it, we promise.

► **bothad**  
Replied On Apr 28th 2011:

the dragon was actually really cool looking and looked pretty real too i think thats awesome and took a lot of work probably

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* * *

 **Topic: Shadow doing hospital work?**  
 **In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay**  
 **AltoKara** (Original Poster)  
Posted On Apr 30th 2011:

So, I was at Brockton General today with my daughter, because she'd tripped and broken her arm. We were in the kids ward, obviously, and one of the nurses mentioned that they were going to put a cast on it, when Panacea walked in. Of course, I'm pretty happy about that, since it means that my little one isn't going to need to deal with a scratchy cast for weeks on end while her arm heals, and the nurse goes over to talk quietly with her.

Panacea smiles, nods a few times, then gestures to the door. The nurse looked a bit surprised, thought for a moment, then nodded, so Panacea went over and opened the door.

And then this walked in.

I'm not much for Cape stuff, but both my husband and daughter are, so I recognised her vaguely, then my daughter spotted her and started grinning. 'Mom, that's Shadow!' she said, excited, 'From Team Inari!'

So while she's freaking out about that and only sitting still because it hurts her arm to move, Shadow speaks with Panacea and the nurse for a moment before the nurse comes forwards and quickly talks to the room, explaining that Shadow's here to heal everyone and then Panacea's going to check them, so all the kids stuck in there will be able to go soon. There's a couple of parents that look a bit nervous about that, but no-one complained, so Shadow steps forward. She's smiling a little, all gentle, and cheerfully explains that she's going to help, and sorry if it's a little loud for a moment, but her power's annoying like that and has to make a noise to work, then she barks.

It's not actually all that loud, and it sounds kind of like a bell chimes, then this ripple of pink-yellow light flashes over the room. My daughter giggled, saying her arm went all tingly, then a few seconds later it's all over. Panacea makes some rounds about the room, just putting her hand on the kid's for a second before nodding and moving on, while Shadow makes the same lap but in the other direction.

She stopped at my daughter and smiled, and asked if she felt ok. My daughter, now super excited, grins and nods, basically bouncing in her seat, and Shadow chuckles, 'Ok, just sit still for a minute so Panacea can come make sure everything's definitely alright, then you'll be able to head back home with your mom instead of being stuck in here. Just might want to be careful not to hurt yourself again, ok?' My daughter nods, then really shyly asked for a high five, which she got, and Shadow moved on as Panacea came over and checked.

We were signed out about five minutes after that, and my daughter kept glancing over at Shadow. When we were allowed to leave, she asked me, really quietly, if she could ask Shadow to sign something, so I gave her a pen and my notepad and let her go over there.

She's now begging my husband to put it in a frame for her so she can have it on the wall.

 **(Showing page 1 of 547)**

► **Coyote-C**  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

Aww, that's so cute! I didn't realise Shadow was doing healing rounds now.

Actually, I didn't realise Shadow could heal at all.

How come Panacea was there, though?

► **AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

It all came up in this thread, specifically starting here when Shadow was giving some answers about Team Inari's part in the Empire Vs Protectorate and Inari fight the other day.

Someone else suggested Shadow volunteer at the hospitals sometimes, and Panacea offered to help arrange it and to spot for her, make sure she didn't miss anything.

Sounds like she did a really great job, though! Good to know your daughter's ok. Broken bones suck.

► **Chaosfaith**  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

That's really nice of Shadow to do. Kudos to whoever suggested that, and to Panacea as well for giving up some of her time to follow Shadow around and make sure there weren't any mistakes made.

And kudos to Shadow too, for doing that.

► **Panacea** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

Thanks, Chaosfaith. Shadow did a really good job, actually, there was no reason for me to be following her. She healed everything perfectly, and she even managed to get a couple of things I can't do, like concussions. There were a couple of nasty ones that she managed to fix right up!

Shame she has such a bad limit though, it'd make the lives of just about everyone in the hospital much easier.

► **ArchmageEin**  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

Damn, shoutouts to both of you for doing that, and the hospital for being willing to let the new Cape run about doing it. Not that there was much danger to it, Shadow's one hell of a hero from what I've seen and heard, and with Panacea there it's not like issues couldn't be fixed. And that's really cool, to hear that she can heal concussions. Can she do really heavy brain trauma, or tumours and stuff that're on the brain?

► **Panacea** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

We don't know about that yet, since Shadow ended up too tired to do anything more pretty soon after. We managed to get through eight rooms in the end, in about two hours. Most of that was me going to make sure everything was ok, but Shadow could probably clear out that in about twenty minutes, not counting time to go to the rooms.

She was kinda wiped out by the end, though. Not massively, but she was pretty tired by the last room. She actually struggled a bit to do it that last time.

Shame, because it was actually pretty interesting to see what she was doing.

► **Chrome**  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

That's still really cool, though. Nice of her to volunteer to help, and good of you to make sure everything went ok as well.

That whole limit thing does suck, though... I wonder if Eon can do it as well? Maybe he could do it more? Or maybe he'd have more of a range on it?

► **bothad**  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

shadows really nice to have done that and well done panacea for helping her good to know that she can heal brain problems as well since she can help get more people out of the hospital quickly like you do

► **FirstofMayuary**  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

It would be cool if Eon could do it too, **Chrome** , but I'd've thought that if he could he would've been there with Shadow and Panacea to test it. Just in case something was different about his power, or simply so Panacea wouldn't need to give up two days to make sure everything was fine with it.

And if Eon can do healing too, why would he always leave it up to Shadow when they're doing stuff in public?

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► **AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

It could be a ranking thing. Like, Eon's team leader, so he does most of the up front battling. Shadow's the second in command, so she's healing and illusory combat, keeping safer. Swarm's the third and the rookie, so she stays back out of the way and gives long range support.

It just so happens that their powers merge well with that.

► **AltoKara** (Original Poster)  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

Honestly, I have no idea about that, I'm just glad that my girl's out of hospital quickly. I'll bet that everyone else helped by Shadow is feeling the same.

► **Swarm** (Verified Cape) (Team Inari)  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

Well, Shadow's still asleep, so Eon's designated that I handle the PHO responses this time! Thanks to everyone saying thanks to Shadow, I'll make sure she gets them when she wakes up.

Special thanks to Panacea for spending some of her time at the hospital today checking over Shadow's work after she healed everyone. It's always good to be careful, and we're glad you were willing to help.

Also thanks to the hospital staff for letting Shadow help, and to **FirstofMayuary** for the original suggestion in the other thread, which **AllSeeingEye** already linked last page.

 **Chrome** **FirstofMayuary** Eon's never actually learned to do the healing thing that Shadow did, at least partly because it's difficult to learn to do correctly and all that, and partly because Shadow actually inherited her ability with it, so she's been able to do it for ages and has practised it religiously to be perfect. He's now planning on getting Shadow to help him learn, though. That way we won't have to rely on Shadow as much for on-duty healing, and also because then he can come and help as well.

He hopes that Panacea wouldn't mind spotting for him too, once he gets it down.

 **AllSeeingEye** it's not so much a ranking thing as an opportunity thing, to be honest. Shadow's good at healing, but she's also good at combat. It just so happens that I'm best staying out of the way. If I was better at close in combat, then I'd be there, despite my part in the team being the third and rookie.

And Shadow's healing power works pretty weirdly, since it lets her use it anywhere between five to eight times, but resting between each one helps regain the use faster. We're also pretty sure something like an energy drink would help, and Panacea would probably be able to recharge her a couple of times. Eon's got something he _knows_ works, though, so we're currently making sure she'll always be able to have some on her so she can recharge in an emergency.

We're also pretty sure it won't work on lost limbs, though tumours or brain damage we don't know. If **Panacea** is willing to help, Eon's hoping to have Shadow test that either tomorrow or the day after, depending on when she's back up to full strength.

► **FirstofMayuary**  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

Thanks for the reply, Swarm, and hopefully Shadow gets better soon. Make sure she doesn't work herself into injury or something, though, if she has a hard limit on her powers. It's a good thing that you have a way to help her recover, too.

And huh, I'd actually forgotten that I came up with the idea for that, sort of. Thanks anyway, though I don't know if I really deserve it.

► **Panacea** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

I'd be glad to help out with your experiments again, Swarm. If Eon figures out how to do the healing, I'd be glad to check it over for him to make sure it all goes ok. And once Shadow's better, I'm sure the hospital would be fine letting her test herself on some of the more injured patients in the building, to see if she can heal that too. It's always good to have more healers in town.

► **AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

Maybe the two of you could call some of the other hospitals in the city as well, if General doesn't have anyone who you could try and heal. I can't really see them refusing to let you, especially with Panacea on the case to make sure nothing goes wrong there.

► **Deimos**  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

Id quite like to know if Inari is planning on heading to the next Endbringer attack that happens. Having another heavy duty healer on site would probably take a lot of pressure off Panacea in the medical bay, and more Capes would probably pull through.

► **Eon** (Verified Cape) (Team Inari)  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

We do have intentions to at least allow Shadow to make her way to the next attack, especially since it is now confirmed that she can heal people well enough to be a useful addition. Swarm and I are likely to go with her, Swarm intending to help with search and rescue while I plan on staying near the medical unit to keep it safe, unless we as a team deem it more useful for me to go on the offence against the Endbringer to try and drive it off.

Unfortunately the chances of me being able to assist with the healing itself is low.

► **Panacea** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

That's good to know, actually. You'll want to make sure you head to the PRT building when you do, so you can get one of the bands there and join in. It'll be good to have an extra pair of hands there to heal, though I'll make sure that Shadow only deals with large groups since that's where her speciality seems to lie.

And good luck with your learning, Eon. Even if you aren't very good with the healing, just being able to patch people up is a useful addition in an attack.

► **Eon** (Verified Cape) (Team Inari)  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

Unfortunately it's doubtful that I'd even be that good, depending on when the attack occurs. Healing is a very difficult art to learn, and not everyone has the luck to be born with the gift like Shadow was.

I might join you on Shadow's next trip to the hospital, in fact. Perhaps a bit of first hand experience would help.

 **End of Page.** **1** **,** **2,** **3** **,** **4** **...** **545** **,** **546** **,** **547**

 **(Showing page 3 of 547)**

► **Panacea** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

It probably wouldn't be a problem, as long as you're careful there. I've added your account into the PM conversation I was having with Shadow over the last few days to organise it, so we can arrange for you to join us there.

► **Eon** (Verified Cape) (Team Inari)  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

Thank you, Panacea. I will endeavour to arrange a favourable situation as soon as Shadow has recovered enough to join us.

► **AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

Man, if Shadow's going to be out for so long every time she pushes herself to the upper end of the thing without a break, is it even a good idea to send her to an Endbringer battle? I've heard those get pretty hectic. Even if you try and limit her to healing only groups, who's to say that she won't get caught up in a massive rush and end up out for the rest of the battle?

And I think the next attack's going to be pretty soon, isn't it? Maybe she should be careful not to go to her limit each time she heals at the minute. How long does it normally take to recover between uses? If it's not too long, you could have her do one room, then Panacea do the next one, so she never gets too tired.

► **Eon** (Verified Cape) (Team Inari)  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

The effect grows with every use, sadly. The first time, it might only need a couple of minutes break, but the next will take longer. And the exhaustion collects as well. It's better if she has a break in between, she can sometimes get a ninth use out of it, but without something to help her recover she'll just be out again.

Your method could still work, of course, but we're making sure to give her a supply big enough that she can use it in the next battle to keep going throughout.

► **GodofDogs**  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

It'll still be really cool, though. Good thing Shadow can work with Panacea so well, that'll certainly help at one of the battles, and just around the city in general too. If Panacea can give Shadow boosts, then that'll be _really_ helpful in the end.

► **Arombee**  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

Damn. Going to an Endbringer attack. I wouldn't have pegged it for you. I mean, no offence, none of your powers seem like they'd be all that useful against any of them. Leviathan's hydrokinetic, Behemoth's dynakinetic, and the Simurgh can fly. It doesn't seem like you'd be able to do anything at all to them.

It's good that Shadow's healing, but I'd say it's a no-go for combat?

► **Eon** (Verified Cape) (Team Inari)  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

 **Arombee** no offence taken, I understand that we don't look like we'd be particularly helpful in that situation. However we do have a few more powers that we can use- Shadow more than myself, admittedly, but I plan on learning as many of them as I can over the coming weeks.

None of them are as difficult to learn as healing is, and there's bound to be something I can learn from her that'll be useful.

► **Tin_Mother** (Moderator)  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

As interesting as this all is, can it please stop in this thread? If you want to discuss what you'll do in the next Endbringer attack, please take it to its own thread.

Thank you.

► **Eon** (Verified Cape) (Team Inari)  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

Of course. My apologies, Tin_Mother.

► **BlueDragon**  
Replied On Apr 30th 2011:

So, am I the only one having trouble with the fact that Eon can apparently _learn_ powers from Shadow?

 **End of Page.** **1** **,** **2** **,** **3,** **4** **,** **5** **...** **545** **,** **546** **,** **54**

* * *

 **AN: And that's interlude one of two! The next one will be going up shortly, then after that the story's gonna _really_ start kicking off.**

 **I think I managed to get all the formatting straight, but please tell me if you spot anything. Hope you enjoyed!**


	13. Interlude- Threat Report

**A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm Interlude 3.**

 **PRT Threat Report/Power Classifications Document.**

* * *

 **PRT Internal Document EP/THRPT/1022-01-00102659/2011-05-14**

 **CLASSIFICATION:**

 **Secret, Not for Public Release, Open Internal Release**

 **DISTRIBUTION:**

 **Security level 2 or above.**

 **DRAFTED:**

 **Director Emily Piggot, PRT ENE, Brockton Bay**

 **CHECKED:**

 **Armsmaster, Protectorate ENE, Brockton Bay**  
 **Miss Militia, Protectorate ENE, Brockton Bay.**

 **ADDITIONAL:**

 **Assault, Protectorate ENE, Brockton Bay.**

 **Battery, Protectorate ENE, Brockton Bay.**

 **REFERENCES:**

 **AM/MM/PHACT/1022-00-00001450/2011-04-12**

 **AG/CB/KW/GA/VS/PHENC/1022-00-00001467/2011-04-14**

 **AM/AS/MM/PHACT/1022-01-00001469/2011-04-15**

 **AS/MM/BT/PHACT/1022-01-00001471/2011-04-16**

 **CB/GA/PHACT/1022-01-00001474/2011-04-18**

 **VL/DL/PHACT/1022-01-00001479/2011-04-23**

 **VS/CB/PHACT/1022-01-00001483/2011-04-24**

 **SS/KW/PHACT/1022-01-00001486/2011-04-25**

 **DL/TR/MM/PHACT/1022-01-00001500/2011-04-28**

 **CB/KW/PHACT/1022-01-00001512/2011-05-01**

 **AG/GA/PHACT/1022-01-00001515/2011-05-02**

 **SS/KW/PHACT/1022-01-00001518/2011-05-04**

 **DL/BT/PHACT/1022-01-00001522/2011-05-07**

 **AM/AS/PHACT/1022-01-00001545/2011-05-11**

 **KW/GA/PHACT/1022-01-00001548/2011-05-13**

 **DATE:**

 **05/11/2011**

 **TIME:**

 **12:48:26**

 **REVISION:**

 **01.A.2**

 **INTERNAL THREAT ASSESSMENT REPORT**

 **SUBJECT: Team Inari**

 **Update May 14th, 2011**

 **Summary**

This report contains the threat report for the Parahuman group known as _Team Inari_ , along with protocol recommendations for communication.

 **Background**

 _Team Inari_ is the name given by themselves [introduced DocRef **AS/MM/BT/PHACT/1022-01-00001471/2011-04-16** ] which was quickly adopted by the public soon after their debut [DocRef **AG/CB/KW/GA/VS/PHENC/1022-00-00001467/2011-04-14** ]. At the current time, there are three members of the team:

 **Eon** , initial public appearance 04/14/2011 [DocRef **AG/CB/KW/GA/VS/PHENC/1022-00-00001467/2011-04-14** ]

 **Shadow** , initial public appearance 04/14/2011 [DocRef **AG/CB/KW/GA/VS/PHENC/1022-00-00001467/2011-04-14** ]

 **Swarm** , initial public appearance 04/14/2011 [DocRef **AG/CB/KW/GA/VS/PHENC/1022-00-00001467/2011-04-14** ]

All three members of the group named themselves, giving their names to the Wards ENE during their initial public appearance.

 **Eon** has the appearance of a dark grey fox with nine tails, each tipped with blue. **Shadow** is a similar vulpine, predominately a brown-red with an orange plume on her head and six orange tails. **Swarm** is the only obviously human member of the group, a human female with an insect-themed costume.

Both Eon and Shadow claim to not be Case 53's, when questioned by Vista during the initial public appearance, claiming to have no tattoos and be able to remember much of their lives previously.

 **Threat Assessment Ratings, Provisional**

 **Subject:**

 **Eon** , Independent Hero

 **Real name:**

Unknown

 **Affiliation:**

 **Team Inari**

 **Age:**

Unknown, estimated to be between 18 and 21

 **Height:**

Approximately 3'08"

 **Weight:**

Estimated to be approximately 44 pounds

 **Appearance:**

Eon has the appearance of a large, vulpine creature, with massive similarities to the Japanese kitsune, notably the _Kyuubi_ , which are nine tailed kitsune that are over 900 years old. Please note that this age appears unlikely. Eon stands quadrupled on animalistic paws, with red eyes and dark grey fur over his entire body, with the exception of the tips of his nine tails, which are a light blue. He also has a crest of fur on his head, which drops approximately half way down his neck. Eon often appears to be wearing a bag, which has a crest of a badge on the front where it seems to clip together [PicRef **PHACT/0016/11:16:53** ]. An identical badge to this has been noted apparently pinned to his chest [PicRef **PHACT/0017/11:17:06** ], though it is unknown whether it is or if it is merely held onto the fur there.

 **Personality:**

Eon appears to have two distinct personalities, primarily based on the situation at hand. The first is relaxed and calm, willing to speak with anyone who wishes it, whether civilian or otherwise, and is noticeably polite, though not dismissive. The second is very much a leader, making an appearance most often during incidents where his team ends up intervening, speaking sharply and almost snappishly even to his own team mates, with extreme competence in directing them during any form of battle or ambush. This persona is extremely formal and polite, almost report-like even when speaking somewhat casually during a situation, and is a sure sign that something serious is occurring.

 **Known Associates:**

Other members of Team Inari.

 **Mover 3+:**

Eon has been shown to have fairly high agility, able to run at approximately 15 mph, with the apparent ability to increase that speed given some set up time. Eon can jump up to the roofs of two-story buildings with little apparent effort, and has been observed leaping between buildings and jumping off of roofs in order to set up an ambush.

Assume that he will make pursuit difficult, and would likely give chase should retreats be attempted.

 **Shaker 6:**

Eon is well known to weaponise a form of illusory ability when in combat. This has been used multiple ways, but Eon seems to favour it as a method of intimidation, using it to form apparent reinforcements to his team in order to distract opponents and allow a takedown while they focus on the illusions. There is no known range to the illusions, as though Eon appears to mostly form them within a close range of himself- approximately 10 feet- he has been seen forming them further away than that distance.

Eon also has a form of pyrokinesis, which makes up the remainder of his fighting style. Small orbs of blue fire, which he calls **Will-o-Wisps** , are known to cause painful burns in whoever touches them, and can only be healed with the assistance of his team mate Shadow. Other methods include flamethrowers and small blasts of fire that explode and expand rapidly on contact.

Rumours on Parahumans Online [PHO] suggest a form of mild telekinesis may be available to Eon, but these are unconfirmed as of yet. Assume that Eon will attempt to distract attackers with large scale illusions for intimidation, while herding them towards the flames in order to take them down.

 **Brute 1+:**

Eon has been noted to take hits somewhat above the normal strength without flinching or even appearing injured, though it is unknown how much he can take. He also appears to have somewhat above-average strength, being seen easily holding down assailants with his front paws, though some of this can be attributed to use of leverage.

 **Blaster 5:**

Eon has been seen using multiple Blaster abilities, including his pyrokinesis, as a method of attack. During the Bank Incident [DocRef **AG/CB/KW/GA/VS/PHENC/1022-00-00001467/2011-04-14** ] he was seen creating a purple mist that tracked down the Undersiders during their escape, and an encounter with the Empire Eighty-Eight [E88] Capes **Hookwolf** and **Cricket** was seen using the flamethrowers and explosive flame balls [DocRef **DL/TR/MM/PHACT/1022-01-00001500/2011-04-28** ] to assist in takedown of the two Capes. References have been made by both Eon and Shadow that they have other abilities, though none of these have been shown.

 **Striker 1:**

Eon has a few methods of close range attack, predominantly using retractable claws in his paws to scratch at opponents. Tackling attacks have also been used, and seem to have much more strength that Eon's size would normally allow for.

 **Thinker 5+:**

Eon has made no effort to conceal that he has above-average senses, informing **Assault** that he would have little difficulty tracking at night [DocRef **AM/AS/MM/PHACT/1022-01-00001469/2011-04-15** ] either by sight or sound, which has also been demonstrated during a number of foiled assaults where Eon has taken down enemies in low light conditions. In the report of the same incident [DocRef **AS/MM/BT/PHACT/1022-01-00001471/2011-04-16** ] both Eon and Shadow mentioned tracking Bakuda by scent from approximately five blocks away, along with noting that she had a peculiar scent attached to her along with her normal signature of a female, smelling _"sparkles, tin, and grey."_ When further questioned on the description, Eon explained that it was impossible to truly explain a scent to someone who cannot smell it, and that was the closest they could give.

 **Stranger 7:**

Eon has been obviously observed vanishing completely from view multiple times, normally at the beginning or end of an encounter with crimes or heroes. It is unknown how this mechanic is performed, but there is no plausible method of tracking him once he has vanished, as he leaves no shadows and no scent, makes no sound, does not show up on scanners and appears to have no heat signature.

Eon has also been seen using this as a tactic in combat, temporarily vanishing from sight and allowing his other team members to distract the opponent to open them for his attack.

 **Changer 8+?:**

Due to Eon's appearance and the claims not to be a Case 53, a tentative Changer rating has been given.

 **Conclusion:**

When in combat with Eon, the most viable method is to stay in close range and take him down quickly, in order to avoid leaving openings for him to use his main abilities. Careful watch should be used to ensure that illusions are not used as an ambush method, and combatants should be careful not to allow him to go invisible, keeping up high pressure to ensure he does not have the time to focus on doing so.

 **Subject:**

 **Shadow** , Independent Hero

 **Real name:**

Unknown

 **Affiliation:**

 **Team Inari**

 **Age:**

Unknown, estimated to be between 10 and 14

 **Height:**

Approximately 1'11"

 **Weight:**

Estimated to be approximately 21 pounds

 **Appearance:**

Shadow has the appearance of a small kitsune, standing quadrupled on small paws with dark brown fur. The fur on her body is a noticeably lighter shade of brown, with a cream patch on her chest, and orange fur on her head-crest and six tails, and light brown eyes. Shadow is normally wearing a purple scarf, to which the same badge worn by Eon is pinned [PicRef **PHACT/0018/11:18:23** ].

 **Personality:**

Shadow's personality is predominately that of a bright and bubbly girl, one who appears to be very young. She appears to be curious about just about everything that she doesn't recognise, and is very talkative when introducing herself to curious people.

Despite this, she is still able to be very serious when required, giving very carefully phrased reports and being discreet with information without prompting. Either way, she appears to be very intuitive, disconcerting information easily, and is highly intelligent.

 **Known Associates:**

Other members of Team Inari.

 **Mover 3+:**

Shadow has been seen to have very high agility, able to run at approximately 15 mph, with the apparent ability to increase that speed given some set up time. Shadow can jump to the roofs of two-story buildings with some effort due to her small size, and has been noted to easily slip into small spaces and underneath things in order to set up an ambush.

Assume that she will make pursuit difficult, and would likely give chase should retreats be attempted.

 **Shaker 5:**

Shadow is known to use a form of illusory ability in combat, though she rarely does so, preferring other methods. However, she will still form large creatures in an attempt to intimidate assailants or fake backup, sometimes using them to make it appear that her team mates have arrived to assist [DocRef **SS/KW/PHACT/1022-01-00001486/2011-04-25** ] and to distract enemies to allow her to get her own attacks in. Shadow's range on her illusions is unknown, though it appears to be approximately 10 feet, though she has been seen placing illusions further with some difficulty.

Shadow also has a form of pyrokinesis, which is also a very small part of her fighting style. **Will-o-Wisps** , flamethrowers and explosive fire blasts are all used by her in combat, however she is less likely to use this as an attacking form than Eon. Rumours of a form of mild telekinesis are also known, though unconfirmed. It can be assumed that Shadow will use mild illusions and fire attacks to herd attackers towards Eon for takedown, or as a distraction to use other abilities.

Additionally, Shadow confirmed during her report on the Bakuda incident [DocRef **AS/MM/BT/PHACT/1022-01-00001471/2011-04-16** ] that she has an area-of-effect healing ability. She claims it has a usage limit of five to eight times, though she can split it into healing damage, which she can do up to sixteen times maximum, and healing what she refers to as statuses, which has a maximum of eight uses. The area is apparently defined by what she conceives as a room, which they can influence using their illusions, however she did not go into any more detail.

 **Brute 1+:**

Shadow has been noted to take hits somewhat above the normal strength without flinching or even appearing injured, though it is unknown how much she can take. She also appears to have somewhat above-average strength, especially considering her size and lack of leverage available, being able to hold down assailants with only slight difficulty despite her inability to properly hold them down with her paws.

 **Master 3:**

Shadow has been observed with a targeted Master effect multiple times since her introduction, for example the takedown of **Lung** [DocRef **AM/MM/PHACT/1022-00-00001450/2011-04-12** ] was accredited to her by Lung himself, claiming that the small kitsune spoke him into sleep. This ability has been seen multiple times since then; in the Bank incident, she showed the ability to force attention to her with a shout followed by the same sleep ability, and it appears to be the same method she used to take down Bakuda. In most encounters, this is her primary weapon, focusing on taking down her enemies with this power while her team mates use other methods.

It is unknown how this power is applied; whether it requires her to speak to knock them out, or if the speech is merely a method of making her target focus on her while she uses her power.

 **Blaster 4:**

Shadow has been seen using a small number of Blaster abilities, mainly pyrokinesis, with devastating efficiency. However, her abilities are noticeably weaker than Eon's, with less apparent finesse, and she has only been seen using pyrokinetic abilities thus far.

 **Striker 1:**

Shadow has a few close range attacks that all appear to do much more damage than they should, given her apparent size and weight.

 **Thinker 5:**

Shadow has made no effort to conceal her above-average senses, using sight, scent and sound as her primary method of locating enemies while hidden during combat [DocRef **CB/GA/PHACT/1022-01-00001474/2011-04-18** ], as well as Shadow being the one to notice the scent of Bakuda from five blocks away, as well as the peculiar scent mentioned to be attached to the Cape [DocRef **AS/MM/BT/PHACT/1022-01-00001471/2011-04-16** ].

 **Stranger 5+:**

Shadow has been observed vanishing from view repeatedly, often at the beginning or end of an encounter. It is unknown how this mechanic is performed, but there is no plausible method of tracking her once she has vanished, as she leaves no shadows and no scent, makes no sound, does not show up on scanners and appears to have no heat signature.

It is also unknown whether or not this is being performed by Eon or by Shadow due to the lack of information on their illusory abilities. However Shadow has been seen to prefer using a different form of the same ability, changing her fur colour to dark browns and blues before hiding in the shadows of an area to ambush [DocRef **AG/GA/PHACT/1022-01-00001515/2011-05-02** ].

 **Changer 8+?:**

Due to Shadow's appearance and the claims not to be a Case 53, a tentative Changer rating has been given.

 **Conclusion:**

When in combat with Shadow, the most viable method is to take her down quickly from close range, being careful not to allow her to focus for long enough to vanish or knock her opponent out using her Master ability, keeping up high pressure to ensure she does not have the time to focus on doing so.

 **Subject:**

 **Swarm** , Independent Hero

 **Real name:**

Unknown

 **Affiliation:**

 **Team Inari**

 **Age:**

Between 16 and 19

 **Height:**

Approximately 5'8"

 **Weight:**

Approximately 132 pounds

 **Appearance:**

Swarm has the appearance of a tall, slender human with dark brown hair. She wears a black and grey costume designed after a bug, with armoured segments resembling a pill bug, and large orange lenses in the mask. The armoured piece on her back appears to be some kind of pouch, as Swarm has been seen directing bugs into the back in order to retrieve things from within.

 **Personality:**

Swarm has a calm and cool, but approachable, personality. She is quiet, preferring to let Shadow or Eon talk for her, but is also willing to answer most questions and appears to go to great lengths to avoid being rude. She appears extremely confident and secure in herself, and places a large amount of trust in her team mates that they will guide her correctly.

 **Known Associates:**

Other members of Team Inari.

 **Master 8:**

Swarm is an insect controller with great apparent skill. She typically carries bugs will her in segments of her costume, and has been noted to carry poisonous spiders in her hair with no regard for any possible danger, suggesting complete control [DocRef **AG/CB/KW/GA/VS/PHENC/1022-00-00001467/2011-04-14** ]. Her total range is unknown, but suggested to be quite high, given that she often pulls more bugs out of obviously nowhere to use in combat.

 **Thinker 1:**

Analysis of Swarm's powers suggest some form of multitasking ability, due to her ability to control upwards of a thousand bugs at an estimate from observations [DocRef **DL/TR/MM/PHACT/1022-01-00001500/2011-04-28** ]. It has also been suggested that she can see and hear through her bugs, though the mechanics of this is unknown.

 **Conclusion:**

Swarm is the least apparent threat of the group, being limited to her insect control as a weapon and nothing else, which would appear to make her viable to mostly ignore while dealing with her team mates. However, given the time to call bugs to her, she could be an incredibly difficult target, as well as a dangerous distraction to anyone attempting to fight her, using her bugs to inject poisons as a takedown method or distracting opposition for long enough to allow Eon or Shadow to get attacks through.

 **Conclusion**

To conclude the report, _Team Inari_ could create a highly considerable threat to anyone who attempted combat with them due to their incredible synergy of abilities. Swarm is the least threatening, but is extremely dangerous in a support role, as she can poison her foes or distract them using her bugs, making her an obvious first target. Shadow, however, makes that obsolete with her healing ability, which would allow her to bring Swarm or Eon back into the fight, making her a more useful target, but she could easily evade notice in battle using her illusions until she was able to focus on her opponent long enough to knock them out. Eon is the most obviously dangerous, apparently very skilled with their illusions and able to easily use them as distractions while his Blaster abilities give him plenty of long range options for battling opponents and keeping attention off of Swarm and Shadow, letting them work in their own specialities. The likely best method of fighting them would be to force the team to split into three separate fights, and putting pressure on them to avoid the fights converging.

However, _Team Inari_ appears to be unwilling to become hostile unless provoked, and as such it is recommended that that is the first approach used, and only to attempt to battle with them in the group becomes hostile.

Director Emily Piggot, PRT ENE, Brockton Bay

Armsmaster, Protectorate ENE, Brockton Bay

Miss Militia, Protectorate ENE, Brockton Bay.

Assault, Protectorate ENE, Brockton Bay.

Battery, Protectorate ENE, Brockton Bay.

* * *

 **AN: Alternative conclusion; "No, we don't really know how to prioritise them. Figure it out yourself, if you're stupid enough to end up in a fight with the apparently peaceful new hero team."**

 **Interlude layout courtesy of the Taylor Varga thread, which has a document layout frame, which I borrowed. Thanks, MPPi!**

 **Anyway, this interlude heralds the official end of the first 'arc' of this story. Well, technically that was two chapters ago, but this completely ends the setup stuff, so we can move on to points where things actually happen. I have a guesstimate of about 6-8 arcs, though some of them might end up being mini-arcs in the middle of major ones, so...**

 **Additionally, I'd like to put out feelers for an idea I have here. I was thinking about doing a side story to do with Shadow and Eon in the Mystery Dungeon world, looking at some of the stuff they did in the year and a half of Team Inari before they came along to Bet. It'd be put in it's own self-contained story, not woven into this one, for ease of storage, plus meaning that anyone who doesn't really care for it doesn't need to read it. I'm not sure how often it'd update, aside from 'whenever I have an idea', or much of the contents, but it'd be a fun way to look into their past in a way that's a bit less exposition-dumpy.**

 **Thoughts?**


	14. Chapter 11

**AN: Warning, some parts of this chapter have been directly lifted from the web novel _Worm_. I do not own any of the parts lifted.**

* * *

 **A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 11.**

 **Panic, preparation, and ruminations.**

* * *

 **May 15th, 2011. Sunday.**

Eon gave a jaw-cracking yawn as he shook himself out, then began working his way through the boxes in the base.

"Hey Eon." Shadow greeted, still curled up in a half asleep ball. "Whatta ya doing?"

"Just looking over everything, Shadow." He told her, glancing back. "Do you think we should move some of this somewhere else?"

"Taylor's already got some of it." Shadow reminded him. "So it's not like we're keeping all of our money in one place. Plus, well, I think our base's more secure that Taylor's house, since no-one knows we're here."

"True, true. I was just thinking in case."

"Just drop one of those stone thingies on it and make a cloak." The Vulpix sighed, curling up further. "Who cares? We're pretty hidden here. Unless we bring someone here, they aren't gonna find it. Not with all the stuff you've put here." Eon opened his mouth, going to speak again, when a distant sound hit his ears.

The sound of a siren, loud and howling despite the distance.

Both vulpine Pokemon stiffened, listening closely.

"What is that?" Eon asked instead. "It sounds like a siren. Police or something?"

"It'd have to be a lot of them to be that loud." Shadow said, standing and tilting her head. "And they don't really sound quite right either."

The burner phone sitting on the side of the den rang urgently, and Eon snatched it up with Extrasensory and answered it, turning the speaker on as he did.

"What's up, Taylor?" Eon questioned. The sole word sent a chill down both their spines, and caused Shadow to bolt completely awake.

 _"Endbringer."_ There was the sounds of frantic scrambling on the other end of the phone, and Shadow quickly began running around, grabbing the emergency bag that the two of them had set up for Shadow to take when she was healing, along with a number of other things.

Letting her fix his scarf around his neck- one Taylor had made for him to pin his badge to rather than his fur- he continued talking. "Any more information on it at all? Who it is, where?"

 _"Nothing, Eon."_ Taylor responded. _"I'm getting into costume now and Dad's looking on the PRT website for me, hopefully we'll find out something then. I've got a bunch of bugs looking over his shoulder-"_ Taylor cut out for a moment. _"Shit. Shitshitshit-"_

"Taylor!" Eon barked. "What's wrong?"

 _"It's Leviathan. And he's coming here."_ She whispered.

"Fuck." Eon stared at Shadow, surprised at the swear. "Taylor, send your dad to those shelter things, we'll meet you at the PRT building asap. Think you can get there?"

 _"From here? Yeah."_ Taylor's voice was shaking, and Eon frowned.

"Good. Shadow'll meet you at your house, I'll make my way directly there to gather information." He commanded, straightening. "Look after yourself, and make sure your dad's safe. He know's where to go, right?"

 _"It's on the PRT website."_ She confirmed. _"I... I'll see you later, Eon."_

"Stay safe, Swarm." The call cut out, and Eon fixed Shadow with a stare. "Go to her, now. She's going to need it. Find her, make sure she's ok, and bring her to the building safely. I'll handle everything there before you arrive."

"Sure thing, Eon." The somewhat playful kit he'd come to adore over the year and a half had vanished, replaced completely by his prepared and experienced second-in-command, ready for battle.

"And please, _please_ be careful. Don't let yourself get too hurt, get Panacea to heal you if you do, because you won't get teleported to safety. And don't lose too much power on your Moves. Heal Pulse and Heal Bell might save a lot of lives, but if you get too exhausted using them then it'll be no help."

"I _know_ , Eon." Shadow replied. "But the same to you, especially. If you're going to be on the front lines... make sure you get to safety if you're too hurt, and call someone to fly you to the medical bay or something. I can't lose you here."

"And you won't, little pix." The Ninetales told her. "You won't lose me, or Swarm, and we won't lose you. Ok?"

"Ok." The Vulpix stretched her back, rolling her shoulders, then began boosting. "I'll get Taylor, and see you there."

"Good luck." Shadow nodded once, then vanished in a blur of movement, the large-ish bag on her back, and left him alone in the den.

For a moment he just stood there, taking the wooden building in, and realising the monumental risks to this undertaking.

It wouldn't be like fighting in a dungeon, even a Legendary. There, they had safety barriers. The badges would teleport them out if they took too much damage, while the strangeness of the dungeon did the same thing to whatever enemies they were facing on the way. Legendaries were powerful, but none of them were actively trying to destroy everything and kill you- at least, the ones that sent challenges weren't. From the stories, some of them were quite different. Even then, though, too much damage would warp you out of the dungeon and into a safe place where you could recover before going back in to try again.

This… this would be nothing like that. The only safe place would be the medical bay, and there was no guarantee that even that would be safe from Leviathan's hydrokinesis. There wouldn't be much recovery time for anyone who was hurt in this battle, whether hero or villain. They'd go back, be patched up, and head back out again as soon as they were able to try and stop this creature.

And many of them would die trying.

Not for the first time since hearing about the Endbringers from Tattletale, Eon cursed the fact of this world. Superpowers could've made this world an incredible place, and instead what it got was a mess of monsters that seemed hell bent on destroying it. They could've had wonderful things, and maybe started communicating with other worlds- from what he'd been told they already had _some_ with a place called Aleph- and instead they were isolated and dealing with these enormous problems alone.

 _Not so alone anymore,_ Eon thought, straightening completely and setting his expression. _And there's no way I'm giving up here. Ignoring the fact that Shadow would never forgive me for leaving this place to the fate it's on track towards, Hoopa came to us with an offer. I have no idea if he meant for us to save this place, or if there was some other motive to him opening a portal here, but I will_ not _give up on this world. For Taylor and Danny, if no-one else._

The vulpine had gotten surprisingly close to the father of his newest team mate over the past month, with the two Pokemon having spent a number of nights in the Hebert household coming after patrols, mostly on days where they'd come in late enough that they might as well just leave in the morning, but also on occasions where they'd come back hurt and needed a closer safe place to recover, even after Shadow healed them, than the den. Either way, Eon had ended up spending quite a bit of time talking to Danny, learning a lot about the new world they'd ended up on- the man was quite a fountain of knowledge on the city alone, which was good for the team of criminal chasers- and naturally this had eventually moved on to talking about their own lives.

Danny was now one of the only people who knew anything about his life on the Pokemon world, as they'd taken to calling it; the other two being Tattletale and Taylor. They'd talked about the amnesia and the fact that there were other humans who'd become Pokemon, speculating that maybe the Case 53 phenomena was something that occurred elsewhere as well, even in worlds without powers as obvious as this one and without any of the marking, or perhaps Eon was someone who had been sent to the Pokemon world to do something important, like the others seemed to have been from what the Ninetales had heard. They'd chatted about the dungeons and what might cause them to appear, and Eon had told a few of the myths and legends he knew from his world, from the normal to the bizarre. Eventually the talk had turned to Shadow; his meeting with her, the missions they'd been on, all the times on of them had had to pull the other out of trouble…

Danny had talked about Taylor a lot, too, and about Annette, the woman who'd died in a car crash almost two years previously and had led to the depression that had made him miss the bullying. The stories other than that had been quite amusing, though Eon was mildly suspicious of the stories about the animals he'd been told, but in the end both of them had bonded over the mutual wish to protect their two girls from everything they could.

Eon had promised to keep Taylor out of trouble as best as he could, on and off of patrol, while Danny helped to keep Shadow well occupied when they weren't patrolling so she didn't go and burn down Winslow any time soon.

It annoyed the human-turned-Ninetales far more than he'd ever thought possible that he'd have to break that promise to Danny and lead Taylor straight into a practical warzone, but it was her choice. She'd already told all three of them that she'd be going to the next Endbringer attack no matter what, because Eon and Shadow were going and she refused to be left behind wondering what was happening to her friends. It had been a long argument, but Taylor had won in the end, so he wouldn't stifle her.

 _Especially_ not when the attack was on her home city. If the roles were reversed, he doubted anyone would've been able to stop him either.

Eon sighed, a long and angry noise, then closed up the den, hoping it would be safe, and layered over the illusions once more in the hopes of dissuading Leviathan from getting to close. Then he looked up at the still-dark skies, sensing rainclouds gathering on the horizon.

"Despite the fact that I'm fairly sure any god that watched over this world abandoned it a number of years ago, I might as well dare to hope anyway. Keep an eye on Shadow and Swarm for me, if you would? I'd rather not find myself mourning over a corpse at the end of this fight."

Turning away again, Eon gave a low growl and loped off, boosting slightly with Agility and heading for the PRT building to start gathering information on the upcoming battle.

Behind him, the wind rushed through the trees, phantom wind chimes following his steps and the hollow tears of something sobbing echoing in the distance for a moment.

* * *

He looked on alone, tears in his eyes, sad yet proud, terrified yet hopeful.

This was unexpected, he mused, and yet it somehow made sense to him. They'd never give up, he'd known that- it was why they were picked, in the end, over the hundreds and thousands of potential others who were more powerful. They had a talent for continuing on, for pushing past the points of breaking carefully yet carelessly, and it was a talent that he'd known would mix so well with her own that they'd _had_ to be picked, in the end.

But even still… it was one thing to _know_ what they would do. He'd discovered that it was entirely another to have to _watch_ it, to see those three walk to what would be certain death for so many of the _'Capes'_ heading into that same fight, and know that there was nothing he could do.

Manipulating the events manually was impossible; all of the power to do so had been used sending their picked ones into the battle in the first place. There was no way he could reach out and ensure that they survived this fight, not anymore. Trying, from what he knew, would only make it worse, sapping the energy they had left over, doing nothing significant in any way other than disastrous. All he could do was sit and watch, hoping beyond anything that all of them survived this- they had to, without one the others would tumble and fall, they _needed_ each other, and not just to win- and pray that it would go right.

Something sang to him, a familiar voice that drew his attention away, looking elsewhere to see what it was, and why _they_ , of everyone, would want him now-

And a mild grin crept onto his face, the terror slightly receding.

No, he thought, he couldn't affect this battle directly without losing everything they had gained…

But the energy they had would be perfect for this.

Reaching over, into that elsewhere, he took what was being offered, twisting and turning them in the light.

And this would be perfect, he decided. One by one, they were sent elsewhere, carefully left where the instructions indicated they would be found when it was right.

He could not save them this battle.

But he could make the aftermath easier for them.

If they all survived.

* * *

"Eon."

The Ninetales, now just outside of the PRT building, paused and turned, looking towards the voice.

"Assault." He greeted, nodding. "A pleasure."

"Not really, but in this situation I'll take what I can get." The red costumed Cape, normally enthusiastic and fun to trade words with, was deadly serious in this moment, and Eon hated it. "Where's your team? Everyone's expecting you to arrive together."

"Swarm was elsewhere. I sent Shadow to fetch her for me, and make sure she got here safely." Eon sighed, shaking his head. "I'm here to gather information for them both."

"Fair enough. Come on, everyone's getting set up inside." Assault led him inside, the two of them carefully navigating their way through the crowded room towards a desk. "Magic armbands here, they'll give you status updates on stuff and give a good way to communicate things. If someone spots something, or figures something out that might be useful, they broadcast it out for everyone." Eon nodded, remembering that from the storm of reading he'd done on the subject.

There wasn't much information about Endbringer battles, not many were willing to share, but Panacea had been quite open about it in the PHO message thread she'd opened, first with Shadow and later with him, about his pix attending as a healer.

He took the offered band with a slight pang, looking at it for a moment curiously. "It'll adjust, even to you." Assault told him, taking one himself. "They have special ones for Case 53's or people with total Changer abilities." Nodding, Eon slipped it over his wrist and pushed it up his foreleg, watching it adjust.

 _State name._

"Eon." The display shifted, and Eon moved to confirm it, before scanning the room again.

In the corner, he spotted the Wards- all the children he'd interacted with over the previous month- with another group or two, probably from out of town, and the New Wave group. They were talking, and even over the distance and din he could hear the jokes Clockblocker was forcing out, the laughter being pushed past panic and terror.

"They're far too young for this." Eon mumbled, shaking his head a little. Shoving the thought away, he looked back up at the energy manipulator still standing at his side. "Shadow's still being set up as a healer, and I'm putting Swarm on search and rescue. I'd rather she were in the back lines near the medbay, but she refused to be helpless in this. I'm going as close to the front line as I'm allowed."

"Aren't you mainly a Blaster and Shaker?" Eon, now thoroughly familiar with the power classifications of Earth Bet, nodded.

"I am, but in this case closer is better. Leviathan's fast, I understand, so the closer I can get the more hits I can get off. And I have some reasonably heavy close range options too."

"Fair enough. Think your illusions will work?" Assault questioned. Eon noticed a number of the nearby Capes were listening too, and realised that this was just a way of distracting them from what was coming next, from the incoming slaughter that was approaching from the water. He shook his head.

"I doubt it. I'm pretty sure the thing's blind, so my illusions won't work at all. It probably senses targets through the movement of water, and they won't do that since they aren't solid. It's less of a waste of power to just focus on trying to blow the damn thing up, or even just test it to see if Shadow's heavier stuff would work at all." He shrugged, a rippling motion, and unconsciously curled his tails tighter to avoid cursing someone. "Annoyingly most of my attacks are fire based or have a charge time measured in… probably a few minutes, given the rain, and I'm irritatingly vulnerable during that time, but that still leaves a few heavy things for me." _And, if I can get the damn thing to_ work _this time, I might get off a Freeze-Dry._ Eon mused to himself. _If the ice-form Ninetales can do it, and that mountain Ninetales learned to given enough time in the cold, then I damn well will too. I'm not that far off, after all._

"You seem pretty knowledgeable." A nearby Cape, one with a strange and unfamiliar accent, put in. "Thought you were new?"

"I am, as is my team." Eon agreed. "But Swarm's been here a long time even so, and it's surprising how much information you can gather from looking at videos, even shaky, poor quality ones. It's hydrokinetic and a major tactic is to flood the battlefield, it's about 60-40 odds that it uses that to sense around it, even if it isn't blind, to keep a watch for attacks from behind. I've known people who do it." Eon shrugged again as the Capes looked at him. _Admittedly chance-dancing from an Absol is a far superior method, but oh well._

"Huh. Impressive." One of the others, probably American but also from elsewhere, nodded at him. "Sure you shouldn't be back seating, doing analysis?" Eon snorted.

"I work better in battle. I had friends who were better than me by far. They just aren't available." Discussion with him stalled for a moment at that, and Eon quickly made his way outside as he heard his friends approaching.

"Hey Eon." Swarm greeted.

"Swarm, Shadow. How'd you get here so quickly?"

"I vaguely remembered enough of the tutorials with the psychic Raichu to be able to use Speed Swap, so I gave Swarm my Agility boosts then boosted myself again." The Vulpix explained. "It'll wear off in about a minute."

"Smart." He nodded. "Come on, inside. We get you an arm band, Shadow, and I'm handing you off to Panacea as soon as I can. Swarm, you're staying near me until I have to leave. You're on search and rescue, as agreed, but you'll probably have to go onto that officially in a bit."

"I can help with that." A soft, gently accented voice said from their side. All three of them looked over and up.

Green, reptilian themed power armour looked back at them, a massive sentry nearly ten feet tall and with missile launchers taller than Swarm was attacked. It was walking on four legs, all of which looked far too delicate to be able to hold the thing up, but they did.

Eon recognised it at once.

"Dragon." He greeted lowly, stepping slightly forwards. "A pleasure to meet the world's greatest Tinker face to face. An honour, too."

"And a pleasure to meet you too, Eon." The Canadian Tinker inclined her head to him. "A pity it isn't better circumstances."

"Quite." He agreed. "You offered help?"

"If Swarm goes and gets her armband now, I can have it set up for search and rescue before the battle even begins." She offered. Eon thought for a moment, then nodded, looking back at them.

"Go inside, it's the desk right in front of the door. They'll resize, even for us, so just state your name and confirm it." He instructed. The two females nodded back, Shadow leading Swarm inside like a good second-in-command, and again Eon's heart ached at the fact that they would be in this battle _at all_ , before he turned back to Dragon.

There was something about her that set his instincts off singing, and he hadn't gotten to where he was now- as a human turned into a Pokemon with amnesia doing mystery dungeons- by ignoring those instincts. Especially since they often led to a Scream.

"Thank you for that offer, Dragon." He began. "You must be rather busy, I suspect."

"A lot of the system's automated, it's not much extra effort to slot one more name in a little bit earlier than it should be." She replied, with a half movement rather like a shrug. "I've been quite interested in your team's career, and especially your abilities, I'd quite like to speak to you about it sometime. Especially your higher senses. I've read the report about you being able to smell the unusual scent on Bakuda, for example, and I have to admit I'm curious about it."

Eon nodded. Bakuda had been sent to the Birdcage during the month after her capture. The exact date was unknown to just about everyone in the public, apparently because the PRT and Protectorate had been worried about Lung attempting to break her out like he'd been broken out during the attack the bomber had launched.

Why that meant they were keeping it quiet _after_ the attack was something Eon still had no idea about, but he didn't really care. She was in a secure prison where she belonged, and that was enough for him.

Eon had known that the report Inari had given to Assault, Battery and Miss Militia would've ended up in the database for them, but he hadn't realised that Dragon- a member of Canada's Guild- would also have access to it. Presumably that just meant that she was in the PRT systems as well, but it made him wonder just how many _other_ people now knew about their abilities…

Mentally, he shrugged. _It's not like it matters,_ he mused, _we don't exactly go to great lengths to hide our abilities from the public, and Shadow basically runs our online presence anyway, so half the world knows tons about us even with her being discreet._

Aloud, his ruminations only having taken a moment, he continued from the nod, "Of course, I can see why that would be interesting. I believe the scent is Tinkertech, or something relating to that; back home we have some objects with odd smells as well, and normally they create strange effects on those holding them."

"I see…" Dragon said. "The report said Bakuda's scent had… what was it… _'sparkles, tin and grey?'_ Is my armour the same, or does Tinkertech have different scents?"

"From what I can tell, Tinker's have different scents, though I've only met three of them. You got Bakuda's right, Armsmaster is… blue, glitter, and silver- the metal, that is, and Kid Win's is… weird." Eon explained. "It's _normally_ orange, lemony and glitter, but the orange sometimes is red and the lemon is sometimes orange, like it's being swapped out for other parts."

"Intriguing…" The far taller form commented. "What about me?" Eon took a moment to sniff the air between them, blocking out the scents of hundreds of people moving and the heavy rain that was coming in from the ocean, signalling Leviathan's approach.

"Like green, lightning, and Porygon." He replied, almost automatically.

"Sorry?" Eon paused, thinking over what he'd just said, and chuckled.

"Ah, right. You wouldn't know… a Porygon is something from back home. They're a machine species, or an artificial one, that mostly live in computers but can project themselves into the real world if they wish to." Looking up at the rain, he almost missed the fact that Dragon had frozen beside him, and continued, "I assume that's probably because you're known to be a Tinker who works with computers, as well as other Tinker's technology, and some Porygon are known to work with others as a sort of weapon they can use."

"Perhaps." Dragon responded, sounding a little strangled and stunned. Eon contemplated this for a moment, wondering why that had sent his instincts ringing louder, when he heard a sound from inside and Shadow poked her head out of the doorway.

"That Legend guy's talking to all the Capes in a minute, Eon. You might want to come in."

"Thanks, Shadow." The Ninetales glanced up at the armoured Cape next to him. "Are you coming as well, Dragon?"

"No, I'm staying out here, the rest of my suits are coming in a minute and I need to remote them down properly." She shook her head, apparently coming out of whatever thoughts she was in. "It was a pleasure talking to you, Eon. I hope we get the chance to work together in the future."

"As do I." He lowered himself for a moment in a half bow, then straightened. Turning back to the doorway, he saw Shadow staring at something and glanced around again.

A huge form was walking towards them, making the few Capes still outside in the just-falling rain scatter from his path and stare in awe, tattoos shifting on his shirtless form as a metal mask glinted in the slight light of dawn, bravely peaking through the clouds brought by the Endbringer.

The bulking shape of Lung halted for a moment at the doorway to the building, looking down at the pair of Pokemon- Shadow moving to flank Eon as the leader shifted to defend his second if the Parahuman decided he wanted to turn hostile for her takedown of him over a month ago.

The two group leaders examined each other for a moment, Dragon still on the side and seeming tense, along with many of the other Capes in the area, then Lung inclined his head to Eon. "Greetings, _Kyuubi_." He said gruffly. "It is good to know that my informants were correct, and that you and yours would be here in this fight."

"Greetings to yourself, Lung." Eon acknowledged, with another slight bow. "I was unaware that you would attend this battle. Swarm has informed me you have had… previous relations, as it were, with Leviathan." The leader of the ABB snorted.

"I have, before. Since, I abstained from fighting these beasts. But this bay is my home, and what dragon would I be to not defend my horde." He paused, thinking, then added, "Of course, the ability to settle old scores with the island-sinker is appreciated, and upon learning that your own team would be willing to put themselves on the line for this fight honour demanded that I do no less."

"Understandable, I suppose." Eon decided. "I assume there are no hard feelings between our groups?" Lung snorted.

"Of course. At the battle of an Endbringer, there are no grudges. And even so, I had ordered my gang away from you. It would be remiss of me to begin a conflict where there is no need of one." He looked at Eon for a second longer, getting a nod of acceptance, before his gaze shifted to Shadow, now firmly back in second position. "Little kitsune." He greeted her calmly. "You are to fight as well, I presume?"

"I'll be healing." She replied, shaking her head. "I'm ok in combat, but I have no idea how many of my abilities will work on this thing, so I'm helping Panacea."

"Ah, yes. I recall reports of your gift in that." Lung remarked, still looking down at her. "Yes, healing. Putting together those Capes injured in this event. Perhaps a more noble goal than fighting it, in the end." Under his mask, the two Pokemon could feel a slight smile directed at her. "Yes… a noble duty indeed. Work well, kitsune. And fight well, _Kyuubi_." The dragon Changer made his way fully inside, leaving the rest of the group somewhat stunned in the rain.

"Interesting…" Eon muttered to himself, as everyone began to relax. Some of the Capes- likely newer ones- descended into chatter before they were silenced by the more experienced ones, while Eon just turned away again and walked inside with Shadow, following her through the now-silent building and over to Swarm. "He seemed… oddly more polite than I expected. He ordered his gang away from us?"

"I guess." Reaching their third team mate, the bug user knelt down to listen in.

"Lung just showed up, is it safe for us to be here?"

"Yeah. We just spoke to him outside." Eon muttered back. "He's following the Truce, and apparently he ordered his gang away from us. Part of his reason for even being here was because someone overheard that we'd be fighting, and at that point it became a matter of honour for him to show up and help as well."

"Huh." Swarm grumbled. "Sounds… strange, but it kind of makes sense too. It sounds like something he'd do. I wonder why he's called the ABB away from us, though?"

"No idea." Eon shrugged, curling his tails close again. Shadow was silent for a moment, and seemed thoughtful.

"Hey Swarm," she said, after a moment, "Is there any guess on what nationality Lung is?"

"Most people guess he's either Chinese or Japanese, from the looks and his gang." She told her. "Why?" Shadow glanced around carefully, then flicked her tails.

The familiar feeling of an illusion settled for a moment, and she spoke even more lowly, "What are the chances that he knows the Inari legends?"

For a split second, Eon felt confused, then the light clicked and he snorted. "Probably quite likely, pix." A slight commotion made him cancel out her illusions, giving Swarm a look that promised to explain later, and the three straightened and looked forwards, seeing the figure of Legend vaguely through the crowded room.

"Welcome, all of you. We owe thanks to Dragon and Armsmaster for their early alert. We've had time to gather, and that means we have just a few more minutes to prepare and brief for Leviathan's arrival, instead of jumping straight into the fray as we arrive. With this advantage, some luck, teamwork and hard effort from everyone, I hold out hope that this could be one of the good days. However, even so, you should all know your chances in this fight. From our previous encounters with this beast, and its fellows, the statistics show that even on a good day, one in every four of the people in the room will be dead by the end of that day."

With only the slightest shudder, Eon looked at his team mates. _Not them._

"I'm saying this because you all deserve to know, and because it's rare that we have the time to say this to those individuals like you who step up to fight these battles. I do not want you to underestimate Leviathan; too many good heroes- and villains, to- have died to this monster because they let their guards down for just a fraction of a second- and that fraction was too long."

Legend went on to speak about Leviathan, the _'middle child'_ of the Endbringers; neither the strength of Behemoth nor the smarts of the Simurgh, but a lesser version of both at once. A hydrokinetic with incredible speed and power backing him up, hydrokinesis on a macro scale.

Eon was hardly hearing this, though. Instead he was focused on the Wards and New Wave, a group he could barely see but could still smell, even over the terror that was flooding the room like bitter fruit. _They're too young for this,_ he muttered to himself again, _all far, far too young._

"Newfoundland."

The name snapped Eon's attention back forward again, his regrets still dwelling in the back of his mind, memories of articles springing forth to take their place.

"May ninth, 2005. Nearly half a million dead. The Canadian island simply gone, after the shelf of land holding it up cracked in the face of what we now understand were incredible pressures beneath the water level. Kyushu, the night of November second and the morning of the third, 1999. His sixth appearance. Nine and a half million killed when the region was swamped with tidal waves from every direction while Leviathan disrupted prearranged evacuation attempts. Nearly three million evacuees rendered homeless, a nation sundered.

"These were errors, grave mistakes from defending heroes. We had but one strategy at the time- to hem him in, minimizing the effects of growing waves and casualties until Leviathan was beaten into a retreat or Scion arrived. These areas, however, were too vulnerable. Waiting let Leviathan build up the strength of his attacks, and we lost."

Legend began speaking about the difference between _'hard'_ and _'soft'_ targets- the Bay was one of the latter- but Eon was again thinking elsewhere.

So many deaths. A pair of attacks so devastating, ten million killed between them- at _least_. Two whole islands sunk in a matter of hours, gone beneath the waves.

If it weren't for that huge death toll ringing like a bell, Eon thought that Kyogre would've been impressed.

He _wished_ Kyogre was here to help fight this. Or perhaps Rayquaza, with his ability to cancel out the weather on a whim. He had experience fighting Kyogre when he got into a spat with Groudon, surely he'd be able to help against another hydrokinetic.

Hell, any Legendary at all would be a huge help here. Not even the major ones, like Lugia and Ho-oh. Even the Beasts or the Birds, or one of the smaller Mythicals like Shaymin and Manaphy, would be a boon to this fight. They were powerful, often incredibly so, and they could save so many people.

But all they had was him and Shadow. A Ninetales and a Vulpix, in a fight against something that was basically Kyogre on an epic number of boosters.

"We are splitting you into groups based on your abilities! If you are confident you can take a hit from Leviathan and get up afterwards, or if you have the ability to produce expendable combatants, we need you on the front line! You will be directed by Alexandria and Dragon!"

Eon refocused again on the front, but didn't move to join anyone. Instead, he kept his ears open and turned to his friends.

"Stay here until everything begins. Shadow, with Panacea as soon as you can. Swarm, I want you near me until I leave to go fight. For now, I'm staying back to gather information, see if I can guess what sort of damage our abilities can deal to this thing."

"Armsmaster and Chevalier will be leading the hand to hand combatants who do not fit in Alexandria's group! Anyone who thinks they can harm or hamper Leviathan in close quarters, you'll be assisting and reinforcing the front line!"

"I'd've thought you'd go with them, Eon." Swarm questioned. Shadow had just nodded and settled back a little."

"I could, yes. But for the start, until I throw on a few boosts, I'm better playing observer."

"-forcefields, telekinesis, whatever your power, if you can interrupt Leviathan's movements or help reduce the impacts of the waves, you're the backup defence! Bastion will direct you! Movers! We need fliers, teleporters, runners! You'll be responding to pings! Rescue the fallen, get them to emergency care, assist any others where needed! Myrddin will give you your orders! Long ranged attackers, with me! If you fall in more than one category, go with the group where you think you'll be the greatest assistance!" Legend was still shouting at the front, and the group of people staying where they were was dwindling, but Eon kept his team from moving until he spotted Panacea, still with Glory Girl, and the brunette spotted him in turn.

The two began to make their way over when both Pokemon heard it, turning sharply towards the wall closest to the ocean.

"Everyone out of the building!" Eon barked instantaneously. "He's trying to bring it down on top of us!" As if to confirm his statement, the walls began creaking ominously. Forcefields began going up, trying to stop the water, and over the din Eon vaguely heard Legend calling for someone named Strider.

Thunder seemed to roll, and for a moment the entire world went black and smelled of purple qumquat, then the feeling disappeared and he was in a river, Swarm falling next to him and Shadow swaying.

A number of other Capes in the area were also dropping to the ground, unbalanced, and then Eon's world was taken up by a sharp shock of _curse_.

* * *

 **AN: And so it begins.**

 **This chapter is mostly set up, beginning arc 2 of _A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm_ ; the Leviathan arc. The arc is going to include more than just that, obviously, but that's the main event of the arc. I hope it lives up to everyone's expectations.**


	15. Chapter 12

**AN: Once again, some parts of _Worm_ have been lifted directly into this chapter. I do not own those.**

* * *

 **A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 12.**

 **Curse, death, and battle.**

* * *

Eon yelped slightly at the tug on his tail, likely coming from one of the nearby Capes that'd fallen over from the effects of whatever had just happened. It was only one tail, luckily, so the curse wasn't likely to be heavy, but it was still a curse.

And in the middle of a fight with this Endbringer a bit of bad luck was the last thing they needed.

Then again... it was a weak curse, meaning they didn't know what they'd triggered when pulling the tail and also done it accidentally, so it might not be too bad... and he'd also heard, once, a story of a Ninetales controlling the curse they set.

Admittedly it'd been a much more powerful curse than this one, and also one caused on purpose, but maybe...

 _Live._ Eon thought, trying to push that idea into the curse. _Live through this battle, so that you must handle the aftermath._ Nothing seemed to change, and a moment later there was a slight white ripple over his fur, the curse taking effect. He sighed. _I suppose we'll never know if that did anything. At least I tried._

"Are you ok Shadow, Swarm?" He asked, as the pressure on his tail vanished- whoever had landed on it had moved away, and would probably never know of his hopeful curse on them.

"Fine, Eon." Shadow muttered, shaking her head.

"Me to." The bug user agreed. "Eon?"

"I'm fine. Shadow, get moving, find Panacea and find where the medical's going to be, get healing. Swarm, stay on me, start searching with your bugs but don't leave until you have to. I'm staying for research, then I'll go in." He commanded them. "Stay safe, both of you."

"We will, Eon." Shadow promised, as Panacea came over, somewhat unsteadily.

"Come on, Shadow!" She called, over the howling rain and crashing sounds of the approaching waves. "Vicky's gonna take us over to Strider, he'll teleport us to where the med-bay's being set up!"

"Alright!" She barked back. The little Vulpix glanced back at her friends. "See you later?"

"Of course." Swarm nodded, sounding a little choked up.

"Go help people, little pix." Eon grinned slightly as Panacea reached them. Glory Girl was hovering behind her, and for a moment the healer looked uncertain before lifting her up into her arms and stepping back, letting the flying Brute pick them both off the ground. Instead of watching them leave, Eon turned forward to look at Leviathan, the imposing figure now in fairly easy view for his eyes.

The creature was thirty feet tall at least, but slightly hunched over, making it look slightly shorter than that. The face area was flat; no nose, no mouth, just five slightly yellow eyes, staring into the gloom at the defenders. The rain was slightly heavier where he was, though he looked unbothered and- Eon squinted a little- completely dry, the water running off him before it even touched him and joining the awful water echo.

"Get ready!" He heard Legend call, the Endbringer bracing himself as well. Eon made his way closer to Swarm and stepped in front of her slightly, breathing in.

Then he _moved_.

The creature blasted past the defenders before he even had time to react, the echo following a few seconds later. Instinct alone sent the Flamethrower towards it, bleeding some of the water off of the thing, and moment later it blasted over the defending group. Eon grabbed Swarm in a mild Extrasensory, stopping her from falling over, and shooting another Flamethrower in his direction. He dodged away from it and back out to the ocean, heading towards the barrier group.

 _Carapacitator down, CD-5. Krieg down, CD-5. WCM deceased, CD-5. Iron Falcon down, CD-5. Saurian down, CD-5._

Ignoring the armband for a moment, Eon looked to Swarm. "You ok?"

"Alive, yeah." She hissed, staring at Leviathan as he rampaged through the crowd. "Holy shit, he's faster than I expected."

"Yeah."

 _Meadowtrance down, CD-8. Borderlander deceased, CD-8._

Eon growled slightly, beginning to layer on Agility boosts. It might not get him anywhere _near_ the speed of the Endbringer, but it might well be close enough. "This looks like it's gonna be a lot more dangerous than I thought. I knew he was fast, but not _that_ fast. Boosting to the point where I can hit him is gonna be hard, and unless he's distracted I don't think I'll manage to get him at all long range."

"Doesn't Will-o-Wisp deal some damage as well as making the target weaker?" Swarm was keeping her voice down, despite the distraction of the Capes they were currently among, which he appreciated.

 _Lupobreeze deceased, CD-9. Phantom down, CD-9._

"It does, and luckily this weather doesn't seem to dampen my Fire abilities as much as I thought." He nodded. "Perhaps it's a Pokemon thing, rather than a rain thing."

"Either way, that's good, right?"

"Probably. The rain _might_ put out the effects of the thing eventually, but hopefully by that point it'll have done some damage and stopped this damn thing from dealing too much." Eon sighed, still boosting. "Now, I just need to get close to it…"

Swarm's armband beeped slightly, making both of them look at it. Swarm half-sighed. "I'm moving on. Search and rescue, since people probably got knocked away from the waves."

"I… alright, yeah. That makes sense." Since no-one was looking, all too busy trying to reorganise themselves into something that could possibly go against Leviathan-

 _Sheer Cloak down, CD-9. Pierce down, CD-9. Bughand deceased, CD-9._

\- so Eon leaned over slightly and hugged her legs. "Good luck, be careful."

"I will, Eon." Swarm withdrew into the rain, bugs buzzing weakly around her and skittering all over the floor, looking for people she could try and help. Eon, meanwhile, gave up on Agility-boosting when things began getting somewhat jittery for him, and started using Hone Claws instead, boosting Attack and Accuracy in the hope of landing some decent hits.

 _Hex deceased, CB-4. Raven deceased, CB-4. Flux down, CB-4. Cyvoice deceased, CB-4._

Grumbling and growling to himself, Eon manoeuvred his way closer to the Endbringer, still boosting and having to focus on not sending himself sling-shotting across the wet ground under the influence of all those Agility boosts, and began examining it.

For a while he just stood there, watching the distant slaughter- he really couldn't call it a fight, he decided, not with all of the names coming through the armband every couple of seconds as down or deceased- while boosting. He took note of the way it moved- fast, barely any pauses, and with the echo chasing its every step even dodging the physical attack wasn't a sure-fire way out of danger- and how little it seemed to care about the flying Brutes and Blasters that were slowly but surely peppering it with shots.

After a while of Hone Claws boosting, to the point where his paws were beginning to tingle irritatingly and he honestly felt as if he couldn't miss an attack if he _tried_ , and a long enough period of watching Leviathan rampage and listening to the sound of the death toll ring on the armband- at one point, he'd almost panicked when he thought he'd heard _Swarm's_ name come up among the deceased, but it had just been someone else with an annoyingly close enough name that he'd misheard slightly- Eon made a careful retreat away from the thing and closed his eyes, deciding the next thing he needed was some Calm Minds.

 _Agility to move fast, so I can hopefully avoid his attacks and get close enough to repeatedly hit him. Hone Claws, giving me the Accuracy to hit every time and the Attack to do some damage- even if I don't have many Physical moves, at this level of boosting even Scratch and Fury Swipes would do pretty good, and I've got a couple of other things I can use as well in a pinch, thanks to Shadow. Finally, Calm Mind. Easier to focus, since everything else is shoved to the back, and boosted Special stats too. Good for me, most of my attacks are Special, but I don't know if Leviathan's attacks would even count against a Special Defence… shame Shadow didn't know Cotton Guard or something from one of her weird ancestors, then I've have the full set. Or Double Team, evasion boosts would help too._ Eon hissed a sigh aloud to himself, shaking his head a little.

 _Focus. Calm. Either way, I now have a lot of boosts, moves that work with both of those Attack boosts, and a way to get close to Leviathan to hit the thing. He's being distracted by the other Capes attacking, so maybe I could get close enough to land some fire or something on him… damn, do I regret not trying harder to learn some of Shadow's weird moves._ Shaking his head again, he opened his eyes- figuring he probably had enough Calm Mind boosts by now- and stood.

 _-alker deceased, CG-3. Captain Shifting down, CG-3. Kid Win down, CG-3. Madam Wave deceased, CG-3. Radiance down, CG-3. Velocity down, CG-3. Drøm deceased, CG-3. Rip-Beam deceased, CG-3. Aegis down, CG-3. Vista down, CG-3._

Scowling to himself as he recognised the names of some of the Capes he'd come to work with over the last few weeks- including some of the Wards, which was unacceptable in his eyes, Eon shook himself out fully to try and get some of the rain out of his fur, and stepped out of his hiding place-

Only to be met with the form of Lung flying the other way.

Leaping to the side, he grasped at him with Extrasensory- now powerful enough to catch the dragon that was approaching ten feet tall, and in the middle of a battle like this there was no point hiding things- and set him down as the raging dragon shook his head, dazed.

"Lung!" He barked. The Changer took a moment, then looked down at him, nodding his thanks for the recovery. "Are you alright? You don't seem to be growing much." The dragon scowled, grunting and gesturing to Leviathan. Eon paused, thinking for a moment. "Are you not in conflict with Leviathan enough to ramp up? He is pretty distracted by this…" Lung nodded.

For a minute, Eon stood there, then closed his eyes. Another Calm Mind later and he had managed to stop his heart from racing as much from the startling sight of a dragon flying at his face, letting him think.

He grinned.

"So, you need constant, focused combat to ramp up well, right?" The dragon leader of the ABB nodded again, looking slightly confused through the scales. "Well, you're now in conflict with me." To prove his point, he reached out and poked the dragon's side, his boosts making it so the slight tap did some damage and surprising the Cape. "I wonder how far we'll get you to ramp up before Leviathan notices and takes offense?"

The smug smirk was matched by Lung, and never left the Ninetales' face, even as he started dodging around swipes from Lung, letting the flames wash over him and drain into his Flash Fire ability for even more power. Lung was already a few inches taller than he had been, and Eon carefully darted in to tap him with his paw again, sliding under a claw swipe to do so.

His boosts had taken about ten minutes to set up, and should last about fifteen- excluding the Attack and Special Attack, which were being reset every time he took a hit from the fire. Eon vaguely wondered how far up Lung would ramp during that time, and if he'd be able to start getting close to Leviathan's size before the horrible creature noticed that the two of them were levelling the playing field and decided to come stop them.

He hoped it was a possible. Especially since Lung's power seemed to be seeing him as a greater threat than the _Endbringer_ , somehow, given how fast he was powering up. Maybe it was all of the boosts he was currently running? If so, he might have a better chance of damaging the thing than he thought…

 _Keeperflora deceased, CG-4. Kaiser down, CG-5. Aurashake deceased, CG-4. Hot Trick deceased, CG-4. Soundcover down, CG-5. Brandish deceased, CG-5. Nemesis down, CG-5. Regent down, CG-5. Night deceased, CG-6…_

* * *

Swarm shook her head as she handed the wounded Cape she was cradling over to the nearest flier, then stretched her arms. Blood was beginning to stain on the costume, some of it from the unknown Cape she'd hopefully just saved and would be healed by Shadow or Panacea. Behind the orange goggles, she frowned at the reddish-brown colour.

 _Still, it's all worth it, in the end._ Swarm thought. _I have a spare costume, blood isn't that hard to clean out if you know what you're doing, and even if this thing does end up ruined then at least it got wrecked saving lives._ Looking around with her bugs for anyone in the area she might have missed, with her real eyes she looked up at Leviathan.

She was annoyingly close to him now, probably close enough that Eon would scold her for putting herself at risk later; according to the map it was one CH-8, and she was on BF-3. Not close enough to be in trouble, she thought, but close enough that some of the remains of his rampage through the shielding ranks had ended up here, where she could safely find them.

The Endbringer was more horrible than she'd ever realised from pictures, all twisted limbs and strange twitching movements that made it look unreal. The thing felt more like a monster now, standing only a few blocks away, than it had ever done in moments of video and pictures on the internet.

Of course, the reeling death toll coming from her armband made the entire thing slightly more horrific.

 _Mist Demon down, CG-8. Grim deceased, CG-8. Lanceguard deceased, CG-8. Tsunami deceased, CG-8. Trickster deceased, CG-9._

Hissing slightly, Swarm firmly shook her head, licking her lips behind her mask and stretching a little before looking back at her armband. She noted dimly, in the back of her mind, that the water was slowly draining off the spider-silk costume, and taking some of the blood with it, leaving her costume only slightly stained brown with dried blood.

A few seconds later, more red dots began appearing on the map, showing her where there were more people she could help. Brushing her soaked hair back away from her face, Swarm wished bemusedly that she'd thought to get a hairband before she left, then gently touched the badge on her chest- completely untouched by any of the blood that had been on her costume, somehow- and started walking through the streets again, searching widely with her bugs as she paced closer to one of the dots.

Bugs, mostly roaches that had survived the flooding, began to stealthily converge on the area, looking for the person she was trying to find, and she cringed as a dead body floated by, face-down in the water and unrecognisable from the amount of blood mixing with their hair and costume.

 _That's awful._ She swallowed, tears brushing her eyes slightly. For a moment, she thought about approaching it, turning it over and seeing if she recognised the Cape, when she caught the sound of a moan and turned to it, spotting a Cape against one of the walls, their arm torn off at the elbow by Leviathan's claws.

Hurrying over and ignoring the splashing, she reached the Cape's side- another out-of-towner that she didn't recognise- and reached into her backpack on her armour, one of the spiders in there pushing out a large swath of spider silk, which she took and stretched slightly.

The Cape was mostly unconscious, she noted as she knelt, yet again thankful for the waterproof silk, and didn't seem to register that she was there while she wrapped the length of silk around the stub of... his, she guessed from the body shape, arm and pulled it tight, hoping to stop the Cape from bleeding out on her.

It was an idea she'd only had a few weeks before, when Shadow had first started her stint in hospital work. She and Eon had been over for dinner the next night, since Shadow was still pretty tired from healing, and the little Vulpix had told her some stories from the day before that hadn't been on PHO. Eon had mused aloud that it might be a good idea for the three of them to carry bandages with them on patrol, because it wasn't always a guarantee that Shadow would be able to heal, and it had given her an idea.

Even while still eating, Taylor had began setting up her spiders to weave massive sections of cloth, tightly woven enough to work as bandages in a pinch, and had taken to carrying a few of them around in her backpack while on patrol. She hadn't needed them in the two weeks since she'd started, but luckily in the rush to get out of the house and towards the PRT building she'd had the presence of mind to grab all of the spider silk bandages that she'd made up and thrown them into her bag before leaving.

Pulling the knot close, she began looking around for a flying or teleporting Cape that would be able to take him back to the medbay, where Shadow and Panacea could hopefully save him.

"Hey, excuse me!" An unfamiliar female voice made her look up, spotting a Cape with crystalline wings above her circling lower. "Need a hand?"

"Yeah!" Swarm called back, limiting the amount of bug-buzz in her voice. It would only make it harder to talk over the rain. The Cape landed next to her in the water, cringing momentarily as it splashed up, and smiled.

"What's up?"

"He needs to get to the medbay." She said, rolling her eyes behind her mask, _honestly, was that not obvious from the amount of blood?_

"I can get him there, no problem." The Cape nodded, blue eyes looking slightly worried behind her blue domino mask. "What about you? I can get someone else to carry you there too…"

Swarm paused, blinked, then chuckled. "No, I'm ok, I'm just doing search-and-rescue. None of this is mine." She gestured at the blood slowly mixing into the water on her costume, suddenly understanding why the girl had been so confused. The other's eyes widened, and she nodded.

"Oh. Right, sorry." There was a slight blush under her cheeks. "Sorry. Um, good luck, I guess?"

"Good luck to you as well." Swarm watched the girl lift the other Cape- she obviously had some kind of Brute rating too, because she did _not_ look strong enough to do that- then raised her arm automatically to shield herself from the spray as she beat her crystal wings to take off, rising high enough that Swarm struggled to see her in moments.

She stood there for a second, the spiders inside her backpack probing about and looking at things. She only had four of the bandages left, though the spiders in there were close to finishing making a fifth, and there were still so many wounded Capes left sprawled on the battlefield…

 _This is horrendous._ She thought lowly, shaking her head. _Not just awful… I understand why some people only ever go to these once, even if they survive the fight._ Shivering under the rain, she chewed on her lip. _I'm almost upset that I refused to back down against Eon when we argued about me doing search and rescue. I'd have been way safer back near the medbay doing defence or whatever…_

More names beeped from armband, some familiar but mostly not, and a number of them close enough to where she was for the red dots to begin appearing on her map. Hissing, and sparing only half a second to mourn the ones that had come through as _deceased_ , Swarm started to wade through the water again, moving to the nearest red dot.

 _But if I did that, then I wouldn't really be doing anything at all. My bugs couldn't do anything to Leviathan if he decided the medical bay was a good target to go for, I couldn't really hit him from long range, and more people would be dying out here on the battlefield completely on their own after taking a strike from that damn thing because I wasn't there to pick them up. At least this way, I'm doing something helpful, even if I'm in danger while doing it and seeing some pretty awful stuff._ That thought was only compounded by another body making its way past, someone in heavy-looking plate armour and covered in so many knives and other blades that the only way he hadn't sunk yet had to be through Leviathan's influence on the water, making her wince but continue resolutely towards her next targeted Cape.

 _This is awful, sure, but it's saving lives, more lives than we manage when Team Inari goes out on patrol… it's hero work, just like that is. It's just more violent than normal, that's all._

Those thoughts would stalk Swarm for the rest of the battle, especially during the unfortunate period where she ended up barely a section away from Leviathan due to an unlucky change in current coinciding with a lucky hit from a number of the defenders actually managing to knock the Endbringer off balance and send him flying back a slight distance before he managed to reassert himself in the air and continue the battle- and deciding to tear some of the nearer and weaker Capes into bloody shreds for the insult.

* * *

Eon panted slightly as he settled onto the ground again, having just dodged one of Lung's strikes. "I think that's enough, Lung!" He called, even as he began Hone Claws boosting again.

Their mini combat had lasted just over fifteen minutes, causing Eon to lose most of his boosts- he'd been boosting a little bit throughout, but most the time he was avoiding being _'hit'_ by Lung or just absorbing fire attacks- and the Dragon of Kyushu was just under thirty feet tall- much like he had been at that famous battle, and in significantly less time than then, too.

He had four wings, four arms, and digitigrade feet, and looked somewhat terrifying. Apparently his mask had melted at some point, slight bits of molten steel flecked on the ground, revealing a crossed-mouth and burning orange eyes. Claws stuck out of his fingers over a foot long, which Eon had spent the latter part of the fight dodging, and danced with little flames.

Eon was slightly awed; he was bigger than the extreme majority of Pokemon that he'd ever seen- he could only think of three- and for a few seconds it gave him a feeling of hope that they might do ok.

That came crashing down a moment later, the intervening time being made up of Lung giving a slight grunt of acknowledgement and bathing him in flame for a second to restore him slightly, when he recalled that Lung had been _bigger_ than that during the fight for Kyushu, and the dragon had still lost.

 _How much are these damned things holding back, I wonder?_ Eon mused softly, closing his eyes and Calm Mind boosting. _And, for that matter, why?_

The Legendaries and Mythicals of his home world held back a lot, sure, but that made sense; they didn't want to hurt anyone, excluding a few select individuals, so they held back in battles against normal Pokemon to avoid causing any permanent damage to anyone. Against other Legendaries or Mythicals, they held back to avoid damaging the scenery with their attacks, or hurting any Pokemon that might accidentally end up in the battle zone.

The Endbringers, though… from what he'd seen their only purpose was to destroy things, breaking this world down into nothing bit by bit. But they had no reason to go bit by bit. Behemoth controlled energy; why not just nuke everything he can reach, then move on and do it again? Leviathan was hydrokinetic on a massive scale; why not just flood the entire world, or sink it like he did to Kyushu and Newfoundland? The Simurgh was precognitive and telekinetic; she could just manipulate the entire world into imploding with a few careful moves, or drop an asteroid on it and kill everyone. So why didn't she?

Eon couldn't understand their motivations behind holding back at all, and it both annoyed and worried him.

Breathing deeply and pushing everything behind another Calm Mind, he shifted to upping his Agility boosts back to the standard they had been before his impromptu ramp-up fight with Lung. Luckily he'd managed to salvage some of the boosts, so it wasn't taking as long this time to take himself up to full again, but the fact that he hadn't managed to maintain the full boosts annoyed him.

Oh well. Soon they'd be back up to full, and he'd have another fifteen minutes to get close to Leviathan and try and deal some damage. Then he'd retreat, boost up again, and go back in until the damn thing made its escape.

A roar sounded across the field, followed quickly by the ground quaking as something heavy slammed into it. Looking up, Lung had just thrown Leviathan away, which had pushed him through a number of buildings further away. The dragon began approaching as the Endbringer recovered, then the sound of the armband pinging a new sound drew Eon's attention away-

 _Wave approaching._

 _Oh shit._ Eon mentally swore, looking around him. There were a handful of Capes there, mostly those who had ranged options but no way of flying, and some of the few Capes that had just been released from the medical bay- probably all Shadow's work, since her Move restored some energy as well, which he knew Panacea's didn't do- and were still looking to get back into the fight.

He thought he saw a couple of the Wards there as well, some of the ones that had fallen during one of the earlier salvoes of the battle, one that had knocked down a fairly large number of them, that had clearly been saved- only to be risked again.

There was no way he'd be able to shield all of them, even if he just pumped all of his power into a Flamethrower that he tried to manipulate into some kind of defence against the thing-

A clawed hand was suddenly just in front of him, no longer on fire and just resting there, causing Eon to blink and look up. Lung gestured with his head towards it, then went back to looking around the area, where the other Capes were standing, frozen and looking frightened.

Eon sighed, then snapped at them, "Come on! We need to get out of the way of the wave! Hurry!"

Somehow, the Ninetales' voice reached them all, and as one they began bolting for the Dragon of Kyushu's hand, climbing up and helping each other out of the way of the wave. Eon helped, lifting some of them up with Extrasensory, and he smiled reassuringly at Vista and Gallant as they went up past him, along with a couple of out-of-towners that were probably Wards and looked something between terrified and awed.

The distant rumble of the water had gotten far closer now, and Eon quickly made his own way up onto the slightly-crowded hand, helping to hold people steady with Extrasensory as Lung shifted some of them onto his other two hands, leaving the fourth one free in case Leviathan decided to target him, then leapt for the air to escape the wave.

Glancing a little bit over the edge, Eon gasped as the torrent of water passed by below them, crashing into buildings and flowing around for the fraction of a second before they splintered and cracked, falling over. There were a number of points where shields had been put up, gatherings of Parahumans in one place for safety…

And also providing perfect targets for the Endbringer to pick off once the water stopped moving and the walls came down.

Leviathan was already moving towards one of them, he noticed. All he had to do was stop the waves for a moment, making them think they were safe and drop the shields, then he could attack.

Eon couldn't allow that, and focused.

 _Ice. Cold, frozen ice. Ice so cold that it's painful to touch. So cold it freezes water on contact. The exact opposite of everything fire, everything I do. No fire, vaporising the water on contact, but ice, freezing it, trapping it, stopping it. Stopping everything, paining Leviathan, and making damn sure he doesn't get to those Capes!_

Something horribly cold had formed at the end of his nose and slightly within his mouth, and Eon only spent a second wondering how on earth _any_ Pokemon, even Ice type, could handle this, before he took aim and fired a thin, unstable beam of Freeze-Dry ice at Leviathan, ending in a tiny blob.

Moments later, it impacted, causing the Endbringer to scream in pain and flash-freezing some of the water around him, which was promptly carried off by the current. Some of his water echo froze as well, sticking to his body for a little longer before being torn off, and frozen raindrops began making their way down to earth.

The Capes stared at Eon, who mimicked them looking towards Leviathan.

"Didn't realise it'd be that effective. I know that Naynteyls from the mountains said it would make Water types regret trying to fight you, but _damn_."

"Think you can do it again?" Vista asked, sounding shaky.

"No idea, might as well try." Closing his eyes again, he focused on trying to get back into the state of mind he'd been in a few moments before, cold forming slowly near his muzzle once again. This time, he focused on gathering in into a ball first, then spat it downwards at the apparently confused Leviathan, who was looking around for where the first attack had came from.

The ice ball impacted and flash-froze again with a slightly muffled bang, frozen raindrops from its path down following, and Leviathan seemed to figure out where he was just barely before the Freeze-Dry hit, though he wasn't able to dodge.

At this point, Eon was panting heavily from the exertion of using a Move that was a, not his Type, b, the exact _opposite_ of his type, and c, a Move that he _didn't even know how to do_ until a few seconds ago… and given that he was actually being supported on that endeavour by the Flash Fire, Hone Claws and Calm Mind boosts… he made a mental note never to try using Freeze-Dry more than once at a time when he started practising again, and only to do _that_ when he had Shadow around to make sure he recovered.

The ice below him cracked slightly.

 _Leviathan's frozen, but he won't be for long. He knows I'm up here, and that one of us here fired those attacks. Lung can't really defend with only one hand and his tail, plus the fact that he's suppressing his flames to let everyone else stand on here._ Breathing deeply, Eon forced out another Calm Mind to steady himself, then a final Hone Claws for the attack bonus, and focused on using one of the very few lineage Moves he'd woken up with, when he first appeared as a Ninetales with no memory.

Luckily for him, he was close enough to the edge of Lung's hand to slip around everyone and start running onto his arm, calling out as he did,

"Lung, launch me at him!"

His ears, now ringing from the effects of exhaustion, picked up the sounds of startled and scared cries from the Capes that had heard him, and even Lung, wings beating steadily to keep them in the air, looked surprised and worried, but his one free hand came up and over, letting Eon transition to it.

All nine tails felt heavy, the change from normal fur and flesh to solid iron taking moments, and Eon glanced back over them once to ascertain that they had all changed before giving the far larger Cape a nod.

Seconds later, Eon was falling through the air, nine tails curled slightly before him as a shield, and he flipped himself once with monumental effort before slamming down on Leviathan's head, merely fractions of a moment after he broke free of the ice.

Something seemed to splinter and crack, though whether it was his tails or Leviathan's body Eon couldn't tell, as the world began swaying and spinning.

A scream echoed in the back of his mind, and through the disorientation it took Eon a moment to notice that Leviathan had recovered- well, slightly; more than he had, at least- and had grabbed at him, tearing him from his head and throwing him away.

By all _nine_ of his tails.

 _Die, you monster._ He wished woozily, still confused. _Get out of Brockton Bay and away from these Capes. You_ won't _hurt any more._

The Ninetales slammed into something seconds later, and there was a period of all-consuming excruciating pain before the world went completely dark instead.

* * *

 **AN: Somewhat appropriately, there's a couple of Easter eggs in this chapter for people to hunt down. Enjoy doing that, and I hope you're having fun with this arc.**


	16. Chapter 13

**A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 13.**

 **Healing, worrying, and Thunder.**

* * *

Shadow panted slightly as another pulse of healing rang out through the room, restoring the group of Capes that had just been brought in to full energy. Panacea was already moving back from the corner, checking on each of them one by one and nudging them back into awareness. She was almost certainly doing something else at the same time, since none of them were waking up freaking out about broken bones or missing limbs, but Shadow had decided early on that she didn't care. If it meant they were moving away for the next group to get in, then that was fine.

She also realised that she was probably being a bit too casual about the fact that the Capes in this room were going out against the same thing that was tearing them limb from limb, but at this point she didn't care about that either. She was tired, and probably in a bit of shock over it all, and wanted this to be over.

Retreating back into the corner near her bag as Panacea started releasing the Capes she'd healed, she sat down and looked at the sole clock in the room that was quietly ticking away under the frantic rush of healing.

5 am.

 _Five._

The attack had only started thirty minutes ago?

"Arceus." Shadow muttered lowly, nodding to her fellow healer as the girl came over for a drink of water. "You do this _every time_?"

"Every time since I Triggered." The brunette sighed.

"For _how_ long?"

"About nine attacks now, I think. I don't normally go to the Simurgh ones until after the attack's over. No-one wants me getting Mastered."

"Yeah, I can see why. No-one wants to lose you." Panacea snorted.

"No, they don't want to lose my _power_." She corrected, sharply. "It makes me the best healer in the world, of course they don't want to lose it."

"Hey, that's not true. There's people that care about you as well." Shadow went over to her and nosed her hand gently, making her grin a little. "Everyone who's leaving this room alive is thankful for you. All their families are thankful for you. Everyone you've healed in the hospital and _their_ families are thankful for you. So let's get back to saving people, shall we?"

"Are you ok to go again?" Panacea checked, running a hand over the head plume. Shadow thought for a minute.

She'd used six of her eight mixed pulses so far, along with one of her Max Elixirs from the bag. She had a very limited supply of those, though, only the six they'd brought along with them, but she did have a fairly large number of Leppa berries in another bag that she'd traded around the town for over her year and a half as a Rescue team Pokemon. She'd actually been fairly well known for trading other items or giving money in return for Leppa berries to add to her stock, and some of the less combat-oriented Pokemon in Inari had taken to helping her, or managing the small berry farm behind the grove where she and Eon had their main Den. Since they only took twenty-four hours to grow- for whatever magical reason that may be- Shadow and some of the others had taken to growing them there, collecting the crop of four to twelve per tree, and replanting them, keeping some for the team themselves and selling or trading a number of the others.

Growing the berry trees had become a priority of hers ever since Inari had arrived on Bet, which was the main reason behind the grove being the location of their current Den, along with the fact that there was a spring nearby that made for a near-perfect growing zone for them, even if they took nearly two days to grow on this world- which still didn't make any sense, according to Taylor, but she put it down to the berries have special powers that let them do what they did.

Shadow had spent most of the preparation week wandering around the fields and market place, finding and buying as many different berries as she could with the explanation that she and Eon were going to be going on a long trip elsewhere, and she didn't want to end up running out of berries when they could just add another day or so to their time to grow them instead. It had caused a lot of nods, and a few of them to compliment her on her forethought, wish her well, and a couple to make jokey comments about missing her and her wares while she was gone.

Thinking about it, she'd promised that the others in Inari would maintain the berry fields and keep selling them to the market… Shadow hoped they were doing ok.

Shaking off her momentary homesickness, the Vulpix refocused. She had nearly a hundred berries in that bag at the moment, and another Arceus knew in the Den, and _that_ was assuming that none of the trees had finished flowering while she was gone in this fight. It felt like a bit of a waste to use them on Heal Bells, since they had less than ten uses max, but it would also fill up her ability to use Heal Pulse as well, which was now down to ten. That would be twelve more uses, which would go down to four and then up to six…

Shadow snapped out of her thoughts and nodded at Panacea. "Yeah, I'm perfectly fine. Not too tired, and I have some stuff to help me out with it if I do get too bad." Quietly, she added to herself, "Though I should probably keep to Leppa berries until I have the two weeks and berries necessary to make more Max Elixirs…"

Being able to make your own, even if it took an age, was well worth the money she'd spent figuring out how to make it in the first place. Even Eon agreed there, though it'd been a dent in their team finances so they'd all been doing a lot more missions than normal for a while.

"Alright, good. Don't let yourself get too tired, though. Tell me if you need to stop for a minute, and I'll handle yours as well." The two of them shared a tired smile, then went back to work; Panacea slipping into the room that was slowly filling with people that had lost limbs or had more life-threatening injuries, while Shadow went to the one set up for people with multiple wounds or were unconscious due to concussions.

In actuality, the _'rooms'_ were only divided by a thin line of screens that had been hastily set up during the few minutes of warning they had, but it was enough for Shadow to see them as two separate rooms and thus only heal the people on her side. They would then pass through Panacea's part and out the door. Once the healer was done fixing everyone she was able to, she'd come through and check on the people who were unconscious in the room, then wake them up and send them along.

It was all happening hellishly fast, especially for Shadow who normally only had to heal her four-member team in emergencies, but she was managing. It was nice of the PRT people to be helping move the Capes in and out of the room for them to heal. She made a note to find out who those people were and send the local PRT Director a message thanking her for their help in this.

"Go ahead, Shadow." One of the troops said, poking his head around another doorway for a moment before closing it, leaving a sealed room for her to work with. Focusing for a moment, she called up her two Moves and barked, sending the healing energy rippling out. The Heal Pulse targeted the regular injuries, both external and internal, and basically healed indiscriminately, while the Heal Bell dealt with the concussions, blood loss, and any mild cases of blood poisoning or infection that had been picked up while they were outside, coming in on the water Leviathan had dragged along.

The Moves did their work quickly enough, and as the conscious Capes began leaving with quick nods of thanks to her, the Vulpix slinked away, heading for the bag and biting into a Leppa berry.

Better to have them now than run out of power on her Moves and not be able to use them in an emergency.

 _Wave approaching._

Shadow froze, breath catching. _Oh no…_ For a moment she thought of the medical bay she was in, with still-injured Capes in the next room as Panacea worked on them, before flickering to Eon and to Swarm, outside in the rain with their only hope being for them to get to a flier or shielder fast enough that they'd be safe from it-

And then she remembered that Swarm was out there in the middle of the battlefield, possibly too close to the ocean to avoid the wave properly and wouldn't necessarily be near enough to anyone who could help her.

"Hey, Shadow!" The red Pokemon jumped at the call, nearly swiping out at the offender before realising that it was just one of the troops. "Calm down, ok? The building's out of the way of the wave pretty well."

That was true. In the few minutes of panicked rush someone had made the decision to put the temporary building on Captain's Hill, figuring it was far enough away for the waves to not be an issue, but still close enough for fliers to get there promptly.

"But Eon and Swarm aren't here, and Swarm's on search and rescue." Shadow fretted aloud. "What happens if she doesn't get to safety in time, and she gets caught by the wave?"

"From what I've seen of the three of you on patrol, she's smart. She'll manage to get somewhere fairly safe. It might not stop bad luck, but she'll be ok at least." That same trooper assured her.

"I hope so." Nervously, she turned in a circle, then sat down, pawing at her scarf and the badge on it. "I really hope so."

"She'll make it." Shadow jumped slightly again at Panacea's voice, the healer resting a hand on her head. "Don't worry about that."

Shadow winced slightly at her carelessness, remembering suddenly that it had only been about twenty minutes since the armband's had chimed out that she'd lost her mother to the attack, autonomously proclaiming Brandish to be deceased.

Glory Girl had been in the room at the time, having just brought someone in and was having a moment with her sister while the room was empty, and had completely flipped out, her aura blasting fear on full while she floated there frozen. Shadow had heard the chime as well and hurried through, just in time to catch the full force of her aura and make a decision.

The flying Cape was currently sleeping off a very powerful Hypnosis a little while away. She probably wouldn't be very happy about it when she woke up, given that it would've robbed her chance at getting some revenge against the Endbringer that killed her mother, but in Shadow's eyes she would've been a liability on the field with that much rage, so she'd put her out.

Panacea had simply wiped some tears from her eyes, forced herself to stop shaking in fear from the aura exposure, agreed with her assessment, then gone back to healing people.

The teen had nerves of steel and a hell of a lot of mental strength to manage that, Shadow thought.

"Right." Shadow hissed. "You're right. She'll be fine." In the distance, the sounds of the water got abruptly louder, then died off in an enormous crash.

 _Heavy casualties, please wait._ Shadow shuddered again, even as Panacea went back to quickly healing people ready for the next group. The Vulpix couldn't manage to move herself from the corner next to the bag while her side of the room filled again, and it took the trooper- still next to her, through all of that- gently poking her side as he left for her to realise she was up again.

The bark was slightly more of a howl than anything, but it still did its job, getting everyone in the room back up again, only the unconscious ones needing Panacea to come by and wake them up, so she settled back, just as the armband finished processing the casualties and spat out the names.

 _-Pearl, Sage, Warp, Battery, Ivory, Laserdream, Fog, Ember, Razor, Fenja, Baroness, Narwhal, Skidmark, Cryptocrystal, Swarm, Burst-_

There were more names after this one, but by this point Shadow was no longer listening.

 _No._ She thought. _No, please no._ Staring up at Panacea, who had apparently run into the room some time and was running her hand comfortingly down her back.

Absently, she noticed that she was shaking.

"It's ok, Shadow." The healer said softly. "It doesn't mean deceased, necessarily. It's just casualties. She might not even be that badly hurt, she might just have taken cover somewhere and gotten knocked out. She might even be awake again in a minute, the armbands wouldn't report that part. She's probably fine."

"What if she isn't?" She murmured, curling up under her hand.

"She will be." Panacea told her. "Swarm will be fine, just like Crystal will be. Eon didn't get caught either, he'll probably be trying to find her now, or he'll focus on driving away Leviathan so everyone can spread out to find them both, and everyone else that's been seriously injured in the attack."

"Right." The Vulpix shuddered. "And sorry about... y'know, this."

"It's ok. I've been dealing with this for a while, remember? I've seen people flip out when they find out someone they love got hurt or killed. It's alright."

"Thanks." Pushing herself upright, she nuzzled Panacea's hand.

 _Eon down, AB-2._

"Oh fuck." Panacea snapped lowly as Shadow locked up again. "Shadow, he'll be coming in in a minute. The two of us can heal him, he'll be fine."

"But he's hurt, and Swarm's hurt, and I don't even know where Swarm _is_ because she was out looking for people..." She started hyperventilating, making Panacea frown.

"Stop. Calm. I'm taking control of your breathing now, stop panicking. It'll be fine."

It was surprisingly hard to have a panic attack when your breathing was being regulated by someone else, Shadow noted.

"Calm down. It'll be ok. See if you can heal some more of the Capes, we'll get Eon in soon, and he'll be fine. Then someone'll bring Swarm in, and she'll be fine too. It'll be ok."

Noticing that her breath came back, Shadow swallowed once, then nodded. "Right. Right. He'll be fine, there's two really good healers here. Right."

"Yeah. Right here is you, his personal little healer, and me, the best Parahuman healer in the world." Panacea sounded a little bitter about that. "He'll be perfectly fine as soon as he's brought in to us. Someone's probably already got him and is bringing him here, the search and rescue guys are really good at that. They probably gave him to one of the fliers or something, so he'll be here in a minute."

"Makes sense." Shadow nodded, nudging her hand again. "Can we get him in here quickly please? I'm worried about him."

"…Sure." Toying with the edge of her hood, Panacea made her way over to the side room and muttered lowly to one of the troopers there, softly enough that Shadow missed it. The woman nodded and smiled slightly at her, before leaving again with the male trooper who was helping her bring that Cape in.

Panacea came back over and ran her hand over the Vulpix's head crest again. "They'll bring him in to me and you the second he shows up. We'll heal him, then if you'd like you can force him to stay here for a minute to make sure there's no problems before he can go out again."

Shadow snorted. "Not a chance of that happening. Eon'll want to go back out there as soon as he can. It's just like dungeon missions; get knocked out, get warped out of the dungeon, recover a bit then go back in. He's been planning for these battles for ages, he'll want to help. I'm more worried about the fact that Leviathan managed to knock him out even after he's boosted up. That's… scary."

"Boosted?" Panacea had gone back into the other room now and was running around healing people, while Shadow just morosely followed her and kept talking.

"Yeah, it's something we can do. Some of our Moves boost things, like our Attacks or Defences. Eon was boosting everything he could, so Leviathan being able to knock him out through that is a bit scary." Shadow paused, cocking her head, while Panacea worked on regrowing one Cape's arm. "Then again, I don't know if he has a Move for that. Come to think of it, do _I_ even have a Move for that? I know we have Calm Mind, but I don't know about normal Defence…" She trailed off into muttering for a few moments, staying where she was while Panacea went around the room healing, clearing some of them to go back into the fight and calling the troopers in to take some of them away to recover, since she'd used too much mass to heal them to be willing to let them go back out again.

"Panacea!" A new, completely unknown voice hit both girls at the same time the scent hit Shadow, making both of them snap their heads towards the door. A tall blonde girl with a blue domino mask and costume, and crystalline wings, had appeared in the currently empty doorway, supporting a white-grey form in both hands.

"Bring him here!" The robed girl called back, finishing whatever healing she was doing to the Cape she was with at the moment and waving at the waiting troopers to take them away.

"How bad off is he?" Shadow asked anxiously, dancing from one paw to the other.

"Just a _minute_ , Shadow!" Panacea snapped back, as the crystal winged Cape laid him gently on the floor. A second later and her hand was resting lightly on his mid back, and the healer flinched. "Oh, that's not good."

"Can you fix him? Should I help?"

"I've seen what his _'normal'_ looks like, so I can just reset him back to that to heal him. I think that'll wipe out those boosts you mentioned, but it's also the best way I can think of to help him, so that's how I'll do it." Panacea explained. "And you might be able to help with the concussion and stuff, but let me handle all of this first so you don't accidentally do something to what I'm healing. I don't want it to go wrong."

"Neither do I." Shadow agreed, shaking a little. She sat herself down next to Eon's prone form and just watched her fellow healer work, hearing bones resetting themselves in the Ninetales' body while she worked.

The whole thing probably only took a few minutes, about five, but during that time Shadow couldn't help but hate the fact that she couldn't force herself to leave her friend's side, even though there were other casualties in the next room that she could- or rather, _should_ \- be healing, and the armbands were chiming in with more dead and injured every few seconds; though with the current strategy apparently being _'back off and recover while Lung fights him head-on'_ the main injuries and deaths were either accidental, or from the waves being thrown up from the two titans clashing.

Shadow could heal, just as well as Panacea could, and even better if you considered that concussions and other brain injuries were also in her remit- even restoring energy, since Heal Pulse was _made_ to do that. She couldn't judge if the person was actually ok to continue fighting against Leviathan, but since she was restoring energy as well it basically didn't matter. So, by all rights, while Panacea was busy she should be running around helping people get back up and into the fight, helping to save the city.

But she couldn't put people back together like the biokinetic next to her could. Small cuts, she could heal over, and she could do stab and gunshot wounds- she'd gotten too much practice over the last month. But the gaping tears and missing limbs some of these Capes were coming in with? She could only heal over the stubs of the arms and legs torn from the people being flown or teleported in from the battlefield, and she couldn't really do _anything_ for the ones with massive wounds that nearly split them in two.

And she couldn't leave her friend's side. The friend that had been willing to deal with her, even though she was far too enthusiastic about things for him most of the time, and helped her set up a rescue team just because _she_ wanted to, but wasn't allowed to lead a team or be a solo Pokemon because she was too young. Eon had done that for her, despite being new to everything on their side of the world and still getting used to being a Pokemon with amnesia that remembered being a human, and since then had pulled her out of an awful lot of trouble during their missions.

She'd repaid the favour a number of times over the year and a half they'd had together, of course, from minor accidents to poorly timed visions from the Dimensional Scream leaving him vulnerable to attacks, but whether she'd paid that perceived debt or not, she was not leaving her friend's side while he was this badly hurt. _Not now, not never._

"Done." Panacea rolled back on her heels slightly, lifting her hand. "Well, what I can, anyway. There's a concussion there, I think, and something else I can't figure out."

"Probably from boosting a lot." Shadow guessed. "Doing it too much too fast really hurts, because your brain has to move faster to compensate. I can't do much about that, it needs to go away on its own, but if you can poke him awake I can do just a normal Heal Pulse on him to solve the concussion." Nodding, the white-robed healer touched a finger to his fur again, and the Ninetales stirred. "Eon?"

"Pix?" He asked, sounding confused.

"You're a moron, Eon." She giggled in return, suddenly a little delirious about it all. "Seriously, what did you do, charge him?"

"Go' Lung 'o throw me, ac'u'ly." He muttered. "Use Ir'n Tail on'im. Works."

"It does?"

"Mhm. Go'n Thunder 'im. 'll work." Gently, she laid a paw on his side and yipped out a light Heal Pulse.

"Alright, Eon. I'll go do that, you stay here and recover from the boosting fatigue." A couple of the troops came over to carefully lift the grey Ninetales out of the room, though not before Eon muttered something else to her.

"Scream too. Sa'it. Weird." Despite having no idea what _'it'_ was, Shadow nodded.

"I'll be back later, Eon. You rest, I'll handle Leviathan." The Vulpix shuddered slightly as he was carried away, before closing her eyes in a Calm Mind to focus herself. "Right. It's nice and stormy, so I won't need to worry too much about the charge there. Getting my charge is gonna be harder, but I think I can do it. Accuracy… as long as he's still and steady, it's fine. Power's a worry, but hopefully I can manage that too. Eon wasn't worried, at least. Now I just need to get high enough…" A few boosts from Calm Mind and Hone Claws later, and Shadow nodded firmly to herself, looking up at the crystal-winged Cape that was still hanging around- for whatever reason. Panacea had gone back to healing, but she could tell the teen was keeping one eye on her as well. "Are you a Brute?"

"Yeah." The girl nodded, looking worried. "More defensive than offensive, but yeah."

"Defence is good. Actually, defence is better, for this. How close to invulnerable are you?"

Startled, she paused a moment before replying, "Fairly. Plenty for most purposes. It's kept me alive as an independent in LA so far."

"Are you invulnerable enough to take a lightning bolt, d'y'think?" Shadow mused.

"Probably? I mean, it's not going to be the _best_ idea, since I fly using my wings and not some sort of other thing like personal telekinesis or the like." She shrugged, the crystal feathers tinkling a little. "So I could _take_ one, but I'd probably need someone to catch me afterwards."

"Alright." Shadow shook herself out, fur rippling, then padded closer. "Get me close to the clouds, and when I say so throw me in the air and drop. Just don't be between me and Leviathan. And please catch me after the thing goes off, too."

"Good luck, Shadow." Panacea offered, as the winged Cape nodded and carefully lifted the Vulpix into her arms, looking a bit embarrassed about it. "I'd've sent Vicky to do it with you, we know from… past experiences, that she's immune to lightning, but…" She waved at the door to the resting rooms vaguely.

"Yeah, I get it." Shadow grinned. Glancing at her armband, she continued, "Could we get Dragon to warn everyone not invulnerable enough to take a lightning bolt to back away, Panacea?"

"I'll send her a message explaining what I know." The healer nodded. "Go. See if you can finish this."

"I'll have a damn good go." She glanced up at the girl holding her. "Ready?"

"Sure." Shadow was impressed, she admitted privately to herself. Walking out into the storm with another Cape in her arms, ready to head close to the clouds with the apparent danger of being hit by _lightning_ , when she flew using wings, took a hell of a lot of courage. "So, your name's Shadow?" The girl asked, once they were several feet in the air and climbing quickly.

"Yeah, Shadow, from Team Inari." She replied. The message from Dragon rang out while they rose, which both of the girls ignored.

"I _thought_ I recognised the name. Something about a Tinker bomber called Bakuda, I think? And this town's local Nazi's, and… well, obviously you're a healer as well, but a really good one since you're helping Panacea heal here when you have something that could deal damage too."

"We didn't know if it'd work until just." She explained. "That's what Eon was supposed to be doing. He'd find out if my main methods would work ok, then send me a message to tell Panacea I was going offensive for a bit and trying this on Leviathan. If it hadn't worked very well, or we thought there was too much risk to it, I'd've gone back to healing and let others do the damage. No sense being somewhere I can't help much, after all."

"Makes sense. I have a Blaster power too, in addition to the flight and Brute thing, but it's kinda minor. The crystals in my wings detach, and I can direct them at people. They take a couple of seconds to grow back, and depending where I take them from I might not be able to fly for a bit." The girl told her. "I decided on search and rescue instead of trying to do damage because I can fly pretty fast and I'm manoeuvrable- not as much as the folks that float everywhere, but pretty good. Plus I'm strong, not like Alexandria or anything but fairly good, so I figured I'd help there instead."

 _Search and rescue. Like Swarm._ The reminder about her other, newest, friend made Shadow bite her lip, before she closed her eyes and forced another Calm Mind. _She'll be ok. She's probably not dead, just downed. She might've even recovered and gone back to helping._

"Are you ready, Shadow?" Opening her eyes, she noted that they were nearly at cloud level and began charging, looking down as she did.

The message from Dragon had clearly done its work, causing most of the people who were fighting Leviathan to back off. Many of the Blasters were still there and firing at him, trying to keep him in one place, and the Shakers with barrier powers were doing the same. Alexandria was one of the only Capes to still be close to the Endbringer, apparently confident enough in her invulnerability to take the hit, and Lung was another.

Shadow spent a moment gaping at the dragon's enormous size, then shook her head to clear it and looked to the clouds.

As she'd hoped, she was charging right, causing stormy clouds to gather above their heads and roll ominously.

"Should be. I'll give you the mark in a minute, and when I do, throw me upwards and run. I'll aim for Leviathan and I don't think I'll drop until I'm done with the Thunder- everything should suspend me, that's what normally happens- so you'll only need to grab me when I drop." The girl nodded tensely, and Shadow smiled. "And thanks for this. I know you're not obligated to help or anything-" She chuckled.

"You have something that might drive off an Endbringer only, what, thirty-five minutes in? Forty? Anyone would help you here, hero or villain." The girl suddenly smelled embarrassed, and was blushing a bit under the mask. "Plus I'm a bit of a fan."

"Good to know." Shadow winked, grinning. "Thanks."

"Aquamarina." She introduced herself lowly. "Because my crystals look like them."

"Thanks, Aquamarina." Shadow breathed deeply for a minute, pulsing one final Calm Mind out just for luck, before snapping, "Now!"

The Vulpix found herself immediately being launched into the air, and she took a split second to reorient and look down to aim. Aquamarina was already fleeing the area, apparently going for speed as she dropped, gliding as far away as she could in the same movement. Lung had managed to grapple the Endbringer below and was holding him down in a way that made him a perfect target, while Alexandria was clearly trying to help with that.

Shadow grinned, and in a moment of creativity, applied her voice-throwing illusion in a slightly twisted way, casting her voice across the entire field so it sounded like she had amplified it.

 _ **"** **Thunder!"**_

The bright yellow bolt flashed, the clouds having already been heavy with lightning from Leviathan's weather manipulation, and lanced downwards towards the Endbringer. It smashed dead on, very little of it having jumped to nearby raindrops like she'd half-expected and prepared for- so the bolt had somewhere near double the power she'd expected.

Lung and Alexandria were hit a little as well, along with the few Capes who'd been willing to stay close and try holding the Endbringer still, and all of them clearly felt it- even the invulnerable LA Cape, whose tiny shape made a motion like she'd doubled over. Lung's roar of pain was easily audible to everyone.

As, to her surprise, was Leviathan's.

From what she knew, the beast never normally made a sound; that was left to his sister's song and his brother's roars. Leviathan was usually silent, and yet here he was screeching in pain, like ice grinding in a chipper, and rang through the air as the Thunder ended.

It was unusual and terrifying enough that pretty much all the Capes flinched; the barriers went down and, with Lung's grip weakened from his own pain, the hydrokinetic took the opportunity to scramble free and escape, taking hundreds of tons of water with him as he did, leaving the city surprisingly dry, if water-damaged, as he fled out to sea.

The suspending effect of the electricity faded a few seconds later, and Shadow dropped, a little exhausted from using the unusual move, swearing to both find a way to practise that more and also find a way to thank Great-Aunt Ampharos for the fact that she was even in the family tree in the first place, giving her the chance at having both Charge and Thunder as lineage moves at all.

A moment of falling through the air, then she was quickly caught again by Aquamarina, who had apparently kept her speed to trade it for height again to catch her.

"Wow." The Cape murmured. "That was _awesome_."

"Mhm. Tiring, though." Shadow shook her head as, down on the ground, the celebrations began. "Mind getting me back to medical? I need to grab my bags, then I need to go try and find my team mate, if I can. She got hit by the wave."

"And she's alive?"

"Pretty sure so, yeah." Shadow nodded. "I can feel it."

"Another power of yours?"

"Just instinct."

The two were silent for a minute as Aquamarina landed and walked into the medical bay, where Panacea promptly took Shadow from her arms and hugged her.

"You did it!" She grinned, before coughing and putting her down. "Um, sorry. But well done! I saw the flash from in here; what _was_ that?"

"Thunder. The clouds were pretty lightning-heavy from the manipulation of them, so I just gave it an outlet and a target." Shadow replied, stretching out a little. "Would you be ok to manage everything here on your own? I want to get my bags and go try and find Swarm."

"Sure, I can handle it. I'll make sure the troopers know to shuffle your guys over to the other people volunteer healing. Go find your team mate."

"Wait, Swarm?" Aquamarina asked, following the Vulpix as she went for her bags. "What does she do?"

"Bug control." Shadow explained simply, levitating the two packs onto her back and tying them. "All sorts of them. It's why she volunteered for search and rescue; she figured she could find people by swarming their senses together."

"Grey costume, orange eyes, long dark hair?" Shadow's eyes snapped to her.

"You saw her?"

"Yeah, I picked up a Cape from her earlier to bring here, about… five minutes before the wave?"

"Could you take me to where you were?" She asked.

"Sure." Aquamarina nodded. "She might not be too near there now, though, given that there was five minutes before the wave hit and she might've gotten swept away a bit by it."

"No problem. We have a pretty sharp sense of smell already, and I think I know something to boost it further," this was true; thrice-great Grampa Mightyena had passed Odor Sleuth down through the family, "And since she's mine and Eon's team mate, I can find her ok even with the rain and water washing the scent away slightly, I think."

They'd practised tracking the bug-using Cape in the rain for this exact reason.

"Then I'll take you to where I last saw her, and we'll find some way to get to her from there." Aquamarina nodded, looking serious. "C'mon. We don't want to take too long, in case she's trapped somewhere or something. Leviathan might not've taken _all_ the water, after all."

Shuddering at the reminder, Shadow stopped once more to thank Panacea for letting her help- which promptly turned into _Panacea_ thanking _her_ for helping make the workload a bit lighter- then allowed Aquamarina to lift her into her arms again and begin flying towards the location the LA Cape had last seen her bug-using team mate doing search and rescue.

* * *

 **AN: Yes, Leviathan did just eat a Thunder to the face.**

 **Yes, I'm aware Vulpix don't get Thunder, or Charge, or Odor Sleuth, or most the Moves Eon and Shadow know. Eon's a special case, and Shadow has a weird family tree that means she has a lot of Moves in her Egg Move- or Legacy- pool. I've explained it in more detail over on the SV thread, so I'd recommend going there if you really need an explanation for that.**

 **This is the end of the 'battle' segment of the Leviathan arc, but there's plenty more still to come, don't worry.**


	17. Chapter 14

**A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 14.**

 **Fortune, powers, and Time.**

* * *

Swarm groaned as she came back into consciousness, head pounding. Hesitantly opening her eyes, the slightly orange-tinted world spun on the other side of her mask, and she quickly closed them again with a hiss.

 _What happened?_ She thought, over the sounds of the drums in her mind. _I remember I was doing search and rescue because of Leviathan… there was a wave. I hid behind a wall, didn't I? Then…_ Stiffening, she tried to jolt upright in remembrance, then stifled a scream as her left shoulder burned. "Fuuuck." She whispered, agonised. "What the-?"

Slowly turning her head to the left, she opened her eyes again, peering through the lenses in confusion and trying to figure out what was going on through the spinning.

Then she gasped, gorge rising in her throat, and she tore her gaze away again, staring directly upwards. "Oh." Very carefully, she contained her shudder by throwing the feelings into her bugs, the small swarm running around madly above and around her.

Her entire left arm was crushed under half of the wall she'd been hiding behind, and probably a large chunk of the rest of the building she was also in, the bricks and mortar having fallen and slammed onto her during the wave. She also appeared to have taken at least a few to the head, since she had clearly been knocked out and apparently had a concussion from it, given her dizziness.

The bricks had formed a sort of box around her, Swarm suddenly realised, tensing in panic. She'd only managed to not slam her head against the large section of wall- still mostly complete- over her because of her arm being trapped, and the rest of the brickwork had fallen just perfectly to avoid landing on her at all. She could brush her right hand across the wall pieces at her side, and probing with a foot showed the same.

Closing her eyes and trying to ignore the rising panic of being in a somewhat similar situation to the Locker once again, Swarm cast her mind out to the numerous cockroaches that were still under her control, sending them running outside in an attempt to find out what was going on, and maybe signal for help.

This became much more urgent when she remembered that her armband might've been able to broadcast that she was down before it got smashed under the wall piled on her left arm.

* * *

"Is this the place?" Shadow asked, as the girl carrying her hesitated for a moment.

"I think so." Hovering for a moment, the crystals on her wings jingling slightly as they did, Aquamarina scanned the area, taking note of everything, then nodded hesitantly. "Yeah, I think it is. Looks kind of different, but I think that's from the wave."

"Probably." Shadow agreed. "It looked like it wiped out loads of stuff, and probably did again when Leviathan left. Mind dropping a bit lower?" They did so, and Shadow inhaled deeply. The smell of water was almost overpowering, as was the corruption and mud it had brought with it, but dancing lightly under that was something more familiar. A moment of focus brought an Odor Sleuth to the front, boosting her senses, and she gagged a little as the water-mud-infection smell grew even stronger before she was able to force her way past it and find Swarm's scent, buzzing around the area attached to things, clinging despite the water.

"Are you ok?"

"Gross." Shadow coughed. "But I've got her. She went… _that_ way." Pointing with one paw, Aquamarina glanced down for a second before making her way in the indicated direction, a little closer to where the main battle against Leviathan had been.

"So you can track people by scent?" Aquamarina asked, trying to make conversation as they flew slowly about the battlefield, letting Shadow search the area.

"Yeah, if I'm careful." She nodded slightly. "But I wouldn't be able to find anyone other than Swarm or Eon in these conditions. The water would've washed all the scent away that I could possibly use to track. Eon and I practised tracking each other in rain ages ago, and we did the same thing with Swarm whenever we could to prepare for probably having to fight Leviathan at some point. I'm not quite as good at picking her scent out as I am at doing it for Eon, and I underestimated how many _other_ scents the water would bring with it-" Including the lingering scent of death that came from the number of people that'd drowned or been otherwise killed during the encounter, "-But I can still manage to find Swarm. Anyone else, though, I wouldn't be able to just because I don't know their specific scents. I wouldn't be able to pick them out properly through the rain."

"It's still a really cool ability though." The winged Cape told her. "It's a part of your super senses, right?"

"I wouldn't call them super senses, but yeah." Shadow twitched her nose, still searching. "I mean, I guess you would, because human senses are nowhere near as good. To me, though, they're just normal. It's something I've always been able to do... though I can boost them further, which is what I'm doing now, and I guess that could count as super senses. I don't do it very much, though. I don't normally need too; normal senses are enough most the time."

"Fair enough." Aquamarina shrugged. "I suppose having higher senses all the time would be good for stuff. Is that how you do a lot of your patrolling?"

"Basically. We have better hearing, eyesight, and sense of smell, so we use that to track people around. It's pretty simple." She explained. "Hmmm... left a bit, please? I think she's over there." Her helper glanced down at her, seeing where she was pointing, and changed course so that they drifted over there. "Yeah, she's somewhere over here. I can smell it, it's way more obvious here."

"So she's close?"

"Either she's close, or there's a really big amount of bugs over here that're under her control." Shadow acknowledged. "Her bugs relay the scent of her for some reason."

"Does that happen with other Master class Capes?" Aquamarina interrupted, curious.

"No idea, haven't actually run into any other Masters aside from Swarm. As far as I know, it might work for all of them, or only for Capes that have similar powers with animals, or maybe projections. We'll figure it out sometime, I'm sure, but for now I don't know." She shrugged. "Anyway, if there's a lot of bugs with her scent on them, then that probably means she's over here and awake. If I had to guess, Swarm's trying to gather a bunch of bugs that she can use to signal for some help from someone."

"It also means she's ok, but stuck somewhere, I guess."

"Yeah, it does. Still, she's alive, so we can get her back to the medbay and fix that, at least." Shadow sniffed, looking around as she did so, trying to pinpoint where the scent was coming from.

It was made slightly easier by the number of cockroaches running around the same area.

"She's over there, in _that_ building." Shadow pointed, making Aquamarina nod and fly over.

"I think we're going to have to dig her out." The crystal-winged Cape commented, looking over the building in question. It was half collapsed, having been hit pretty directly on one side by the tsunami Leviathan had brought, and that entire end had fallen inward, which had taken down a lot of the other side too. Luckily, that part had fallen outward, onto the street, so it wasn't adding any pressure to the larger mess.

"Looks like it. Hopefully she's got enough space in there, Swarm doesn't do small spots very well." Shadow murmured, eyes swiping across it. "Aquamarina, drop me nearby, please?"

"Sure, Shadow." The Vulpix was quickly deposited next to the wreck, water splashing around her paws- while Leviathan had taken most of the water away with him when he made his escape after her Thunder attack, there was still enough left to form a thin layer of a puddle over the entire city. Wrinkling her nose in mild annoyance, she sighed and tried to ignore it, pacing around the large pile of fallen mortar.

 _It looks far too much like a tomb._ Shadow scowled. _Swarm, you had better be alive in there._ Closing her eyes and focusing, she could hear the ragged, weak breathing of someone, along with the scurrying of insects both inside and out of the thing.

She smiled. "Swarm?" She called, hearing the sounds stop for a second, the person's breath catching, "Are you in there?"

"...Shadow?" Her team mate called back, sounding surprised. "It's me."

Shadow sagged with relief. "I'm glad you're alright." Swarm snorted.

"Not really _'alright'_ , no. My arm's gotten crushed, which isn't exactly fun."

 _And I'm thinking you might be going into shock._ Shadow thought, nervous. _I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to be so relaxed about the idea that your arm's crushed._ Closing her eyes and forcing out another Calm Mind, she shook her head. "Alright, that's fine, we can deal with that when you get back to the medical. Don't move, ok?"

"Don't exactly have room to, Shadow." The insect user replied, making Shadow wince.

 _Ah, good. Worst possible scenario. Brilliant._ Biting her lip, she nodded. "Ok, fine. Let's see..." Looking around for a moment, she glanced back at Aquamarina, who was standing a little ways away in the water. "Aquamarina, could you help, please?"

"Sure." Some splashing brought her over, and the girl examined the pile. "I don't think I'll be able to lift all of this, if that's what you're asking."

"No, I didn't think so. But do you think you could get Swarm out from under there quickly if it was out of the way?" She went silent for a moment, thinking, then nodded slowly.

"I think so, yeah. What do you have in mind?"

"I'm gonna try and lift the pile up. It probably won't last long, only a couple of seconds, but..."

"I can probably get her clear." Aquamarina agreed.

"I'll hold it up for as long as I can-"

"Why not just move it?"

"The pile's holding some other stuff up, I think." Shadow explained, looking up. "So if I shifted it all to the side, that stuff would fall too. I'm only really lifting the bottom layer, and it's not all gonna be secure with the way it's fallen."

"Ah, I see." She nodded. "Makes sense." Shadow closed her eyes again, pushing as many Calm Minds as she could out- the Special boost would help make it easier on her, letting her lift more and hopefully do it for longer- before shaking herself out.

"Alright, I'm lifting... _now!_ " As she spoke, the Vulpix reached out with Extrasensory, grasping the chunks of brick on the bottom of the pile and _lifting_ , hefting all of it directly upwards. Some of the highest pieces wobbled unnervingly, and she edged out her grip to stabilise them, only vaguely hearing Aquamarina moving forward to grab Swarm and drag her out.

"Got her!" The Cape called, making Shadow sigh in relief and drop the pile. Shivering slightly from the work- something that wasn't very usual, given how much she practised using Moves that weren't her Type, but then again she didn't use Extrasensory _that_ much and it had been a lot of brick and pressure- she turned around again, ignoring the pile as it began to settle, and winced as she spotted Swarm's state.

It wasn't as bad as some of the Capes that had been brought into the room, with missing limbs and enormous tears and Arceus knew what else, but it was bad enough on her friend that she shuddered. Swarm's left arm had been completely crushed, all the way up to the shoulder, and the mangled limb was still leaking blood from the mashed veins. Depending on exactly _how_ long she'd been stuck there, there might've been some risk of an infection too, if any of the horridly corrupted water had managed to seep through into her prison and onto her arm.

"Aquamarina, can you take Swarm back, please?" Shadow requested, laying a paw on her team mate's side and pressing a weak Heal Pulse to her. "Get Panacea to heal her completely, then put her somewhere safe." Swarm was unconscious now, passing out from the effects of shock and her Heal Pulse taking away a lot of the pain that was keeping her awake in the first place, and Shadow used a mild Hypnosis on her to keep her that way. "I'll be back at some point soon."

"Alright. Stay safe, Shadow." The winged Cape nodded, lifting the taller girl into her arms. She took off, splashing water into the air and making Shadow cover her face, before she began piling on Agility's, planning on running back as soon as she was able.

* * *

"Panacea!"

Amy glanced up at the vaguely familiar voice that intruded on her work, nodding to the two PRT troopers beside her that were waiting for her to finish healing the current Cape so they could get them out of the way.

A blue-costumed Cape with large crystal wings had just come in for a landing outside of the building, and was holding another Cape in her arms. Taking a closer look, Amy winced at the state of them, gesturing for the other girl- what was her name? She felt like she'd heard it- to place her down on the table, the Cape she'd been healing as they came in already being taken out of one of the side doors.

A glance across the wounded Cape told Amy exactly who it was; Swarm, the insect controller that was on Inari with Eon and Shadow. The girl looked a bit of a wreck, with blood stained into the material of her costume from the people she'd been rescuing- she vaguely remembered Shadow saying that she was on search-and-rescue- but the main issue was the completely crushed left arm, one that a quick touch told her was completely mangled below the material of the costume, which had held up quite well.

Easily beginning the familiar strokes of healing, Amy put the arm back together again- something that was a _little_ harder than normal because of the lack of body fat to work with, but she could manage- and found that she couldn't help but think about Shadow's work.

Over the last fortnight, ever since she supervised Shadow's hospital stint, she'd noticed something… _different_ , about Vicky's aura. It was almost like it had had more of a presence to it, as though her sister had been running around with it cranked up much higher than she normally did. Amy had thought about commenting on it when she'd got home and noticed, but since no-one else in the house had said anything and neither had anyone at school, she'd decided to keep her mouth shut.

The feeling had vanished pretty quickly, Vicky's aura weakening slowly until it ended up at the point where she could basically ignore it again with some ease.

Until today.

Merely being on the _edge_ of her sister's fear aura had near enough completely paralysed her, leaving her shocked and frozen until Shadow had come running in and knocked her out with her strange Master ability, giving Amy the chance to gather herself again before getting back to healing.

 _But_ , she'd been caught on the edges of the fear aura before in the last two weeks, and Amy knew she'd never had as bad a reaction as the one she'd had barely a half an hour or so ago.

So what the hell had changed during that time?

Swarm groaned a little under her hand, drawing Amy out of her thoughts.

"Are you ok?" She asked, shoving her musings to one side.

"I still feel like crap, but less like I was sat on by a building and more like I got punched repeatedly in the stomach." The bug-user announced, slowly sitting up as Amy removed her hand. "So I guess that's an upgrade, at least."

"Means I've done my job pretty well, yes." Amy said dryly. "I'd recommend when you get out of here you eat more than normal, there wasn't a ton of body fat for me to work with so I had to borrow a little muscle mass instead."

"No problem. Rather have to work back up a bit than end up with a squashed arm." She half-shrugged, a grin in her voice. "Thanks, by the way. And thank you, too…?"

"Aquamarina." The winged Cape introduced. "And no problem. It's the least I could do; Shadow was pretty damn worried about you."

"She panicked pretty badly when she heard you go down during the wave." Amy confirmed, helping Swarm stand. She winced.

"Damn, I was sort of hoping the band didn't have time to broadcast that." She looked down at her arm, where the impression from the broken bit of Tinkertech was. "Actually, thinking about it, what's been going on?"

"Eon apparently did something crazy and went down, it hurt him pretty bad. He's healed, though, and in another room recovering- Shadow's advice." Amy explained. "Shadow took off after that on _Eon's_ advice, and Shadow dropped lighting on Leviathan. That drove him off, and he took most of the water with him, from what I've heard so far."

"The battle's over, only thing left to do is find the rest of the Cape's that're missing." Aquamarina chimed in. "I'm going back out there now, actually."

"Good luck." Amy offered, as a pair of troops came over to take Swarm into the back room to rest. Another two brought over the next Cape for her, and she laid a hand on them to start healing again. "If you spot Shadow, check if she's ok to come back and keep healing, will you?"

"I will."

"You will what?" Amy jumped, startled, and turned to look down at the red-brown fox on the floor.

"How did you get here so fast?"

"Abuse of Agility boosts." Shadow explained, standing very still. "Plus side, I can move pretty fast. Downside, I might end up moving way too fast sometimes." She twitched her head over to Swarm. "I take it you're alright now?"

"Just fine, excluding the feeling like crap." Swarm agreed.

"Good. Mind keeping an eye on Eon for me? Pretty sure he's still unconscious in the back room, and from what I know about what he was doing, he's not gonna be a happy guy when he wakes up again." She snorted.

"I don't doubt it, I've heard you tell him before about not over boosting." She agreed. "But no problem, I'll keep an eye on him."

"Thanks." Shadow grinned, before _slowly_ stepping towards her end of the medical bay. "I'll go back into the other room and do what I can, Panacea, but I doubt I'll be doing much. Most of the injuries left are probably gonna be pretty bad ones that I can't touch."

"Just taking those better ones out of the way is great, thank you." Amy assured her, as the Cape was taken away again. "It's quite a bit less work for me to have to do, so I can deal with worse stuff." She paused. "And call me Amy. Panacea's for people who _haven't_ just spent about an hour running around helping me save lives." Shadow chuckled.

"Alright, Amy. I'll be back once I'm done with everything I can help with. Maybe I'll be able to figure out a way to help you too."

Shadow made her way into her own room, a PRT trooper following her to help arrange for more Capes to be brought to her, Swarm was guided into the back room and Aquamarina headed out of the building back onto search and rescue, leaving Amy alone with her thoughts again.

 _I wonder why it would happen._ She silently wondered. _Come on, Amy, think. What's happened in the last couple of weeks that would mean Vicky's aura was on the fritz to me?_

For a few minutes, and a few more Capes, she couldn't think of anything. Vicky- for once- hadn't been doing anything particularly dangerous at all; she'd not done too many patrols, and she'd been fairly safe throughout all of them- excluding the one time she'd been shot, which was honestly probably a record in this city- and there wasn't anything that could have happened at school that would've changed her powers in that way.

In fact, there was _nothing_ that could've changed Vicky's powers at all. As far as Amy was aware, the only thing that could change how powers worked was a Second Trigger, and she was pretty damn certain that she'd've _known_ if Vicky'd been through one of those.

No, she was fairly certain that nothing had changed with Vicky's powers since she'd been to the hospital with Shadow. So what caused it?

About thirty seconds later, the sound of a bark and wind chimes echoed in from the next room, and with it came Amy's sudden revelation.

Nothing had changed with Vicky's aura, true. But _Amy_ had been in the room multiple times when Shadow had used her healing powers, back during the hospital trip at the end of April, and she'd been caught in one of the larger heals earlier on in the Endbringer attack, when she was still helping to check people over before the damage had started getting incredibly bad and she'd had to beg off to go and heal properly herself.

Had Shadow's healing done something to her that changed how she perceived Vicky's aura? It was about the only thing that made sense to Amy, since it was the only unusual thing she'd been exposed to during the period where she'd noticed Vicky's aura being stronger.

It was possible, Amy supposed. Even after working with Shadow a number of times, she still wasn't entirely certain as to how her healing worked. It refreshed minor injuries and energy levels of the patient, and would even heal brain injuries under a certain calibre- which Amy was incredibly grateful for, and it helped to relieve some of the guilt she felt for refusing to treat them herself- but unless it was being focused, then anything more serious than broken bones wasn't even effected, as if her power knew that it couldn't do anything for it and as such didn't even try.

And Shadow _had_ mentioned about her healing, the _'Heal Bell'_ that was part of the whole thing, was something that focused on statuses, whatever those were. Apparently the burns caused by Eon's Will-o-Wisp ability was linked to it, but the ones coming from the Flamethrower and similar weren't. It didn't make much sense to Amy, but powers often didn't…

Pausing for a moment as she lifted her hand from her most recent patient, Amy turned and stared speculatively towards the next room, where Shadow's healing bark could be heard again.

 _Did Shadow's power work on Master effects?_ It would make… some sense, she supposed. Master effects were a type of mental effect, most of the time, so perhaps they'd come under Shadow's- or Shadow's powers, whichever was making the distinction- idea of an effect to be cured. Perhaps, then, Amy's being caught in the edges of the ability so many times had cured her of her own case, and stopped her being able to resist the use of Vicky's aura at the same time.

Again, Amy froze, staring at nothing as she laid a hand on her next patient to begin healing them.

 _She had just called Vicky's aura a Master effect._

She'd never done that before.

In fact, she didn't think anyone had.

But, the more she thought about it, it fit. Changing thought patterns, making a person fear or love her depending on what she wanted…

Shaking herself, Amy went back to healing.

Once all this was over, perhaps there would be time to make some very careful inquiries; to Shadow, to try and figure out exactly what she defined as an effect; to the PRT, to see if they could supply some Mastered victims for them to test things; and, if things played out right, perhaps arrange it so that she could make sure she was hit often with that power.

Amy had no intention of remaining under a possible Master effect, even from her sister.

 _Especially_ considering that it seemed to have knocked out some of the more… awful attraction that she held for her.

* * *

Marissa panted, leaning against the wall of the base thankfully.

"Holy _shit._ " Luke muttered, slumping as well. "That was… that was not good." She snorted.

"Way to understate things, Luke." She snapped. "Fuck. Jess, you ok?"

 _"I'm fine."_ A growly voice came through the speaker system that separated them from the vault room. _"Although it's been a hell of a lot harder than before."_

"Where the hell is Oliver?" Luke asked. "I thought he'd be back by now. It doesn't normally take this damn long!"

"Normally we have Krouse here to keep her under control until then." Marissa replied. "And we're not normally in the middle of an _Endbringer attack_." Luke looked like he was about to snap back at her, when Jess' voice on the speakers came again.

 _"The gas is seeping in."_ It reported. _"Give it a few minutes, and I think she'll be asleep."_

"Thank god." Marissa sighed. "Keep her steady until then, will you?"

 _"Can do, Mars."_ With a relieved nod, Marissa slumped completely to the floor.

"We need a meeting." She stated. "We need to figure out what the hell to do next."

 _"Give it a few minutes, and we'll do that."_ Jess told her.

"Was already planning on it."

* * *

A few minutes later, and the remaining- and available- four friends were meeting in a quiet room, away from all of the mercenaries still running around in a panic.

Marissa felt it was justified, given the Endbringer running around outside, but it was still annoying.

"First, what the hell was Krouse _doing_?" Luke snapped out, taking the lead. "Why wasn't he down here with us?"

"He didn't manage to get back in time." Jess whispered, leaning on the armrests of her chair. "He got trapped outside when they closed the bunker down, and I guess he didn't manage to get to one of the civilian shelters either. No idea why he decided to help out, though."

"I didn't realise he was in costume at all." Oliver commented quietly.

"Neither did I. I didn't think anything of it, but he would've had to have been if he showed up at the attack." Marissa agreed. "What happened?"

"I guess we'll never know, unless a Thinker manages to figure it out."

The four were silent for a while, mourning their comrade while also trying to figure out exactly how he'd been so god-dammed _stupid_ as to join up in an Endbringer attack.

"What do we do now?" Oliver asked, finally breaking the silence. "Do we stay? Do we move on and try and find someone else to help?"

"Where else would we go?" Luke snorted. "Without Krouse to keep her sort of under control, and without the vault, what the hell would Noelle manage to do before we got her somewhere safe?"

"So we need to stay here." Marissa said. "Should we try going to Panacea? I mean, I know he said she wouldn't be helpful, but it might be the only way. He's not helped…"

"We'd need to get Noelle out of the base to meet her, and that'd be dangerous." Jess muttered, chewing on her lip. "But, if she could help…"

"What about that new healer… Shadow?" Marissa suggested. "From what I've seen on PHO so far, she's a pretty good healer, can do stuff even Panacea can't, and she can do it from range, so there's not much chance of something bad happening to her."

It wasn't _no_ chance, of course, but at least the general public wouldn't lynch them if something _did_ go wrong.

"We'd still need to get Noelle out of the base, though." Jess countered. "I somehow doubt either of them would be willing to walk into a supervillain base, even if they were promised full immunity to go through safely… and probably not even if they were offered more than that."

"Still, we have to try, don't we?" Luke returned. "For Noelle's sake, and for Krouse's memory, if nothing else."

"We'll give it a few more weeks." Marissa suggested. "They'll probably be too busy cleaning up after the attack for a while anyway. Then one of us can approach them with the request."

"Plus maybe Coil'll come through for us in that time, and we won't need to." Oliver put it.

* * *

Thomas Calvert scowled behind his mask, clenching his fists.

 _What the fuck was that?!_ He snapped silently to himself, heart racing.

Something had just gone horribly wrong.

And the worst part, he had no idea exactly _what._

He'd set up an alternate timeline just after he'd heard of Trickster's death, figuring he needed the backup to make sure Noelle remained contained once she'd heard of it. In one- this one, currently- he'd allowed Oliver to use a sedative gas on her to knock her out for a while, which would hopefully allow her to calm down.

In the other, he'd sent orders to one of his mercenaries, one who was posing as a PRT trooper helping in the medical bay, to capture the tiny kitsune known as Shadow with the intention of forcing her to use her Master ability to put Noelle to sleep, and then see if she could be healed using Shadow's more unusual healing ability.

It had all been going fine, he'd gotten the report from the merc that he had the kitsune and that he was on his way back.

And then _nothing._

The timeline had merely collapsed on him, a few seconds after he'd put the phone down and begun to contemplate his next action.

That didn't make sense. The timeline hadn't closed because he'd died- which, honestly, he could almost understand, given that the two foxes in Team Inari had some very impressive Stranger capabilities and, while not apparently killers, could definitely do so very easily in a number of ways.

No, the timeline had just crashed, as if he'd closed it himself.

Which he hadn't.

But that wasn't the worst part to him, either. The worst part was the feeling that something was _missing._ Reviewing what he could remember of the now-closed timeline, there'd been a feeling, just before it had closed, of something being _off_ in some subtle way.

As if he'd suddenly forgotten something very important for no apparent reason.

He was fairly certain that neither Shadow nor Eon had a power like that.

 _But then again,_ he thought suddenly, breaking out in a cold sweat, _even if they did, no-one would ever know, would they?_

Mentally, he crossed out any possible plans involving the kidnapping or blackmail of Shadow or Eon. He did _not_ want to find out if they did by being on the wrong end of that power, if they had it.

A second later, he added Swarm to that list. From what he knew of their characters, they'd be more than willing to hunt him down if he went after their team mate, too, and he did not want that.

* * *

Far away, two beings talking over tea suddenly went silent, the larger one cutting off mid-sentence. The smaller frowned, bringing a hand to their head as if they had a headache, while the larger merely gazed into the middle distance.

"Something in the timestream just snapped." The larger mentioned. "Very interestingly, too. It wasn't one of my actions, or one of _his_ destabilising mine. Nor was it one of yours, either. In fact, I don't recognise who did it…"

"I just got a message from a past self." The smaller muttered, sipping their tea.

"Oh?" The larger looked shocked. "That's… unusual. I've been lead to believe that hurts?"

"It does, but it doesn't really matter here. It was a me from the timeline that just snapped." They said. "Quite interesting, too. Apparently the Pixies had to step in to handle something, and once they were finished that timeline just snapped shut."

"…Intriguing." The larger being mused after a moment, delicately setting down their tea. "I suppose a trip to the Summit is required?"

"Probably for the best." The smaller agreed, also leaving their tea behind. Both of them promptly vanished in ripples of distortion.

Four seconds later, they reappeared again, both looking surprised and amused. They picked up their teas again and drank, merely thinking for a moment.

"Well." The larger said, after a few minutes. "That _is_ interesting, don't you think?"

"Very." The smaller nodded, heartfelt. "It probably means we should pay more attention in the future. Especially you, no offense. You've a better connection to things, you can help make sure it goes alright."

"I'll have to discover how they're causing the splinters, first, but I will." They acknowledged. "We can't have anything causing trouble." They sighed. "Now all we need to do is figure out what happened to my brother."

"We'll figure it out, I'm sure." The smaller assured them. "Even if it's just me coming to tell me to tell you." The larger snorted.

"I suppose."

A little while after, their chat started up again, picking up exactly where it left off, with little apparent regard for their newest problem.

* * *

In orbit over Earth Bet, the Simurgh stiffened, eyes snapping open in reaction to her vision.

Slowly steadying herself, she mused over the strange twist of diamond vines that had overtaken her last foray into future business.

Whatever the hell that had been, it had been extremely confusing, and apparently deadly.

Silently, the Simurgh began tracing her way along that path again, trying to figure out exactly _what_ had caused it, and if she could manipulate it to her advantage without getting destroyed herself.

It would be a considerable time before she got her answer.

* * *

 **AN: Swarm having a bad time, albeit somewhat lucky! Amy thinking really hard and having a bad time! The Travellers having a bad time! Coil having a bad time! A couple mysterious beings brooding, drinking tea, and having a marginally bad time! Simurgh having a bad time! Everyone gets to have a bad time!**

 **Also, lots of things are going on here, much of it setup. That's gonna kinda set the theme for a while, I'm afraid, as everyone puts the pieces back together in the aftermath of Leviathan.**


	18. Chapter 15

**A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 15.**

 **Reaction, hopelessness, and recovery.**

* * *

Vicky's eyes slowly fluttered open. She moaned, reaching up to run a hand over her face, and looked around with confusion at the inside of the medical tent.

 _What the…?_ She thought blearily, rubbing her eyes. _Why am I in the medical tent? Did I get injured?_ She didn't remember anything like that happening, and with her invincibility it was pretty unlikely anyway… though she supposed they could always possible that Leviathan had moved quickly enough to knock out her shield and then her as well.

Though the fact that she didn't remember that happening probably wasn't a good thing.

Lying back down on the bed she'd been put on, Vicky screwed her eyes shut and thought hard about the situation, trying to figure out exactly what she _could_ remember, which would hopefully lead her to figuring out what had put her into the medical area.

The flying Brute could easily remember being out in the rain, in the middle of that Endbringer battle, and spotting someone injured floating in the water below. She'd dropped down and, after confirming that they were alive- at least for now- she'd lifted them up and made her way back to the medical area as fast as she could without risking hurting the Cape she was now carrying.

She'd dropped them off with some random PRT trooper and quickly headed into the tent itself to check on her sister and see how she was doing, and had quickly seen how much of an impact the small six-tailed fox named Shadow had been having on the Capes inside.

Shadow's area had been sectioned off from Amy's, since her healing power had that strange room requirement, but the little fox had just been coming out and going through a bag set on one side as Vicky had entered, pulling out a strange red and yellow thing and eating it. Amy had slipped into that room for a few minutes, leaving Vicky hovering there slightly surprised that her sister hadn't noticed her, but she'd assumed that was because the girl was in work mode, so she'd just waited until Amy had come out of the room again, leading a number of Capes out as well who quickly left the building to get back into the fight.

Vicky had flown over to have a moment with her sister, making sure she was alright while being thankful that Shadow had backed into her own room to give them their privacy, then-

 _Brandish deceased, CG-5._

Vicky had frozen hearing that, and she vaguely remembered Amy shrinking back from her and Shadow running back into the room through her shock, before catching the slightly glowing eyes of Inari's healer and feeling the world gently go away…

 _That bitch._ She hissed mentally, clenching her fists. _That complete and utter bitch. She used her power on me and knocked me out! How dare she!_ Without a second thought, Vicky lifted off the bed and flew out of the opening, looking around for her sister and the Cape that had attacked her.

She found both of them in the same place, standing outside of their own medical building- she hadn't even noticed that she'd been set up elsewhere than the main one- and talking to each other in low voices. _Amy!_ Her eyes widened and she dropped in a panic, ignoring the fact that they were just talking and landing right next to them, tearing Shadow from the ground immediately and glaring at her, fear aura on full blast as she floated backwards and upwards a few dozen feet, away from Amy. _Stay the hell away from my sister!_

"Hey!" Shadow yipped, startled. "What's the big idea?"

"How dare you attack me!" She snapped, glaring harder. In the background, she noticed Amy cowering away, but for the most part all her attention was focused on the brown fox in her hand as she drifted further and further away from her sister. "How _dare_ you attack me with your Master power. How _dare_ you!"

She inhaled, ready to continue her angry rant that was getting up steam, only to let it all out in a gasp as something sharp scraped along the bottom of her hand and arm, the slight stinging pain that followed it making her reflexively drop Shadow and cradle the injured area, looking at it to see a slight cut there.

Suddenly realising what she'd just done, Vicky gasped and whipped her head around, trying to catch sight of Shadow, only to notice the brown fox's fall slowing as yellow light crackled around her. Vicky practically cut her own flight to get to her side, though they were both nearly at the ground- well, building rubble- before she reached her.

"Thanks for that." Shadow said tartly, as she touched down on the remaining brickwork. "Any more angry yelling you want to get out of your system, or should we move along to the part where you try and fight me? I'd rather we skipped that as well, but if we have to, I suppose we can find somewhere it won't draw attention."

"I'm so sorry!" Vicky yelped instead, landing away from the fox as what she'd just done hit her. She'd nearly killed her sister's friend, one of the only one's she'd ever made by herself without needing Vicky to intervene- sure, their bond had formed due to their mutual duties of healing, but it gave Amy someone to share that burden with who understood, and Vicky had nearly killed or at least seriously injured her because she hadn't been thinking. "I didn't- I wasn't-"

"Yeah, I know." Shadow snorted, shaking herself. "You weren't thinking. I'd noticed that." Her tiny claws scraped against the rubble, and Vicky winced slightly as she noticed that she was shaking. "I'm alright, though." The Brute vaguely heard her mumble something about something called Arceus and an uncle who taught her something to do with magnets, but ignored it and stepped forward slightly.

"I'm sorry." She said again. "I just… I wasn't thinking, and I was still too angry about… y'know."

"I'm sorry I put you to sleep without your permission." Shadow replied. "I'm too used to people not really minding when I do it, and I kinda forgot how people here see Masters."

"I'm… not actually too mad about that." Vicky admitted, surprising herself a little. "I mean, I get why you did it, I would've been a problem to everyone if I went after Leviathan like that. Hell, I probably would've gotten myself killed. I'm just… not happy that I missed my chance to get back at that damned thing for what it did."

Shadow bridged the gap between the two of them, resting her paw on Vicky's arm. "Hey, it's not really like you would've been too much help, really. You're a close range fighter, and from what I saw Leviathan's too fast to really be dealt with like that- unless you're Eon, who can just boost himself to be useful, or you have a speedy Mover rating, I guess. So you were better off on search and rescue before then. Just… mourn your mum, yeah? I think she'd appreciate that better than one of her daughters throwing her life away in a futile attempt to get revenge on the monster that killed her in the first place." She paused. "Your mum'd probably rather you were helping to save people that were hurt in this, right?"

"Right. Probably, yeah." Vicky nodded, before a thought hit her and she buried her face in her hands, dislodging Shadow's paw. "Oh god, Mom'd be so mad at what just happened. I could've _killed_ you!"

"Hey, it's all water under the- wait, bad choice of metaphor. Umm… it's all in the past now?" She stumbled, making Vicky snort. "I'm fine, you apologised, and I saw you drop to try and catch me. I _might've_ been ok anyway, even with the fall, or I might've hurt myself and needed healing. I'm a bit more sturdy than most people that could've happened to, so I like to think a mere fifty foot drop wouldn't've been too bad for me. Still, thanks for the apology." She paused again, then glanced behind her at the small figure of Amy in the distance. "Now, mind giving me a lift back down to Amy, please? I've still got some healing to do, and I think she wants to make sure I'm alright. And yell at you." Vicky winced.

"I suppose I really deserve that." She sighed, before crouching down to take Shadow into her arms again, this time carefully cradling her to her chest before she lifted into the air. "Thanks for forgiving me."

"Just don't drop me again, and we're all good." Shadow snarked, making Vicky giggle.

That laugh was quickly frozen in her throat from the glare that Amy gave her- _holy crap, I don't think I've ever seen Ames look so mad!_ \- before the healer gently and promptly took Shadow from her arms, holding her for a moment before sighing in relief and putting her down.

"I'm glad you're ok." She said softly, making Shadow bump her nose against her palm in reassurance. She smiled, then turned back to glaring up at Vicky, who landed on the ground next to her. "What the _hell_ was that?! You just come charging in here like some mad bull and drag Shadow away, then you fucking _drop her_ from about fifty feet in the air! What the hell were you thinking, you-!"

"I wasn't." Vicky flinched, cutting her sister off. "I _know_ I wasn't, Ames, and I'm sorry. I was just mad about losing Mom, and Shadow using that Master power to put me to sleep just made her an easier target than Leviathan was. And when I saw her with you, I kinda… panicked. I wasn't thinking about the fact that Shadow's Master power just puts people to sleep, I was just thinking about the fact that she _had_ a Master power and went off on one trying to get her away from you."

"The bit where she dropped me was my own fault, though." Shadow admitted, making Amy look down at her in surprise. "I Scratched her to make her let me go, and didn't think about the fact that I was fifty feet up until I'd already done it. I have some ways to make myself slow down, though not all of them are very good, so I just used one of them, but I didn't really think before I acted. I was a little confused so I went off of instinct."

"Oh."

"Sorry, Ames."

"It's not me you need to be apologising to…"

"She's already apologised to me, Amy." Shadow patted her hand. "Stupid things happened, and could've had bad consequences, but they didn't. Vicky needs to learn to think before she acts, and I need to be more careful about remembering that most people wouldn't react well to being put to sleep without warning by a Cape." She grinned. "Stuff happened, we fixed it, water under the bridge, let's go back to healing?"

"Still a bad turn of phrase, Shadow." Vicky pointed out, making the fox pause before muttering something softly under her breath.

"Dammit. Um, whoops?" She blushed, making Amy and Vicky laugh.

"Right, ignoring that little blunder there…" The healer smiled, crouching slightly to run her hand over Shadow's head plume. "I agree that we should get back to healing. There's still quite a bit to do, even though you cut this fight pretty short."

"She did what?" Vicky butted in, gaping.

"I'll tell you later, Vicky." Amy promised.

"I'll hold you to that." Vicky returned, before floating a few feet off the ground. "I'm gonna go do some more laps of the city, see if there's anything I can do in terms of search and rescue. Go save some lives, sis."

"We will." Amy turned away and walked back into the main building, where there were no doubt more casualties waiting, while Shadow looked up at her.

"Be more careful from now on, ok Glory Girl?"

"I will." She told her. "And by the way, it's Vicky. Amy likes you, and it's the least I can say for forgiving me." Shadow's face lit up.

"Thanks, Vicky. I'll see you later." The vulpine waved before following Amy into the building, while the other Cape flew away to go see where she could help.

 _That could've been bad._ She mused softly as she flew. _In any number of ways. I guess I'm lucky that Shadow's got so many weird powers that she keeps pulling out at the drop of a hat, and that she doesn't seem to hold grudges for_ anything _, no matter how severe it is. And that Amy seems to trust her enough to be ok with what she says._

 _But still… Mom would've_ murdered _me for a stunt like that, especially on a hero who's basically allied with us through working in the hospital with Ames. I'd've been grounded for forever if she'd heard about it._

Frowning heavily, Vicky nodded to herself, her resolve firming.

 _That's it. I'm going to do my best to be better, for the memory of Mom if nothing else. I've done way too much stupid shit since getting my powers, relying on Ames to bail me out. I'm going to start thinking before I act, and being more careful with my powers. I'm going to be a hero and help get this city back on its feet after this attack, not just because it's my home, but because it'll help others._

Twisting to stare up at the sky for a moment, watching it slowly lighten as the sun rose, she caught sight of a few stars still shining in the sky and smiled.

 _I'm going to be a hero you could be proud of, Mom. Just you watch._

* * *

"Hey Shadow!"

The Vulpix's ears pricked up slightly at the sound of her name being called, and she waited for the Heal Pulse to end before trotting into the next room, looking around for Amy. She was standing over one of the beds on the furthest side of the room, and as she headed over she noticed Assault hovering next to her.

Shadow liked Assault. He was funny, and though they didn't always encounter each other on patrols, or have much time before one of their patrolling partners dragged them away, she always found it amusing to listen to his endless stream of jokes and quips, and even random bits of advice disguised as a joke or a quip. She also found it endlessly amusing how Battery- who was apparently a pretty close partner to him, given how much of a mix their scents were- seemed to have totally given up on trying to reign him in and had just resorted to joining in somewhat.

Right now, though, Assault looked anything but happy. Instead, he was worriedly standing next to the bed, tapping one foot on the ground in a nervous beat, and as Shadow jumped up onto the stool a PRT trooper placed down for her, she realised why.

Battery was resting on the bed, looking like she was peacefully asleep, while Amy had her hand on her cheek. Physically she looked perfectly fine, but the fact that Amy had called her over gave a different story.

"What's up, Amy?" She asked.

"I've managed to heal Battery of her actual injuries, but there's something wrong. I think it might be brain damage of some kind, but I can't heal that and I'm not very good at picking out the differences because of it. I was wondering...?"

"Sure, give me a minute." Sitting down and placing her paw on Battery's arm, she inhaled deeply before howling out a healing Move, letting the pulse go on for almost a minute before halting. Taking her paw from her arm, Shadow fell back slightly, chest heaving, while Amy put her hand back on Battery's cheek again.

"Oh. _Now_ I can see the differences. I guess it helps to see things as they shift… the injuries have healed, I think, but I don't know why she's not woken up." Amy frowned.

"Should I try again?" Shadow asked, gasping.

"I... don't think it'd be a good idea." She replied. "It doesn't look like anything would change, anyway. What did you do?"

"Heal Pulse and Heal Bell, like normal." She said. "Heal Bell normally heals issues like this, though..."

"Then I don't see you trying again being able to do anything." Assault sagged. "Thanks for trying, though."

"No problem, Assault." Shadow smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, she'll wake up when she's ready."

"I hope so…" He said lowly, quiet enough that Shadow nearly missed it even with her hearing. "Thanks, though."

"No problem." Shadow jumped down from the stool, wobbled slightly, then walked slowly around to pat him sympathetically on the leg. "Sorry I couldn't help more."

"It's ok, you did what you could." Assault shrugged, crouching down and placing a hand on her head plume. Amy followed over, putting a hand on her side for a moment, and frowned.

"Maybe you should take a break, Shadow." Amy suggested, sounding concerned. "You look really tired."

"I am a bit." She yawned, sitting down. "My Moves take a lot of energy, and even the different things I've been using to give me back the power to do them don't work very well after a while. The energy needs to be there at least a little to restore it properly, and at this point I'm basically just using the remade energy instead of my own, and that... doesn't work too well." Amy sighed, shaking her head.

"C'mon, Shadow, you should go rest. You've done loads here, and you've really helped me out, lowering the amount of work I'd have to do normally. It's... what, half six? You can afford a break." The healer said, slipping her arm under her, across Shadow's chest. "You can sit at Swarm and Eon's side, and take a nap or something."

"What about you?" Shadow asked, as Amy lifted her up into her arms and Assault took his hand from her head. "You've been working just as much as me, shouldn't you take a rest?"

"Healing with my power doesn't actually tire me out." She said. "So you don't need to worry about me. Besides, there's not really many people left that need healing, so I can finish things off here and go grab something to eat and a nap somewhere, unless more people get brought in from search and rescue."

"I'll hold you to that." Shadow yawned again, waving to Assault as Amy turned and carried her towards the room where Swarm and Eon were being kept. "Seeya, Assault."

"See you, Shadow. Thanks for helping." The red-costumed man seemed down still, making Shadow frown sadly, but she wasn't able to do anything about it before Amy nudged open the door to the private room that the PRT people had apparently set aside for Inari, depositing her on the bed between Swarm and Eon's.

"Get some rest, Shadow." Amy commanded lightly, running her hand over her head. "And I promise I'll get some later as well. Don't worry about me."

"Ok, ok." Shadow grinned tiredly at her, resting her head on her front paws. "I'll see you later, then."

Amy hummed an agreement to her, then dimmed the lights and left the room. Shadow gladly closed her eyes and let herself drift into sleep, relaxing properly for the first time since about half four that morning.

* * *

Ethan grimaced as he trailed after the PRT troopers, following them into the small room where Alice was being taken to recover. Behind him, he could hear Panacea giving orders to some of the others, and mentally half-smiled at the thought of the small, mousey healer giving people commands.

He couldn't manage to force that smile onto his face, though, as he looked down at the sleeping form of his wife. The troopers left quietly, leaving him sitting in the silent room holding her hand.

Ethan hoped she'd wake up soon. It had only been a few minutes, but he already missed the sound of her voice as he teased her about things. Admittedly, if Shadow and Panacea couldn't do anything, then it might be a long time, but he would keep hoping.

Ethan was known for his unending optimism, after all, and it'd do him well here.

* * *

Armed with a three hour nap under her scarf, Shadow shook herself out slightly and trotted out of the room, seeing the main healing room that she and Amy had been working in was now empty. It didn't surprise her too much, since she knew that she and Amy had been working hard managing to heal people, but it was still nice to know that they'd apparently managed to heal everyone who'd been found after the battle.

Ignoring her bag, still sitting over on the side and looking untouched- though Shadow could vaguely smell that Amy had been around it, probably closing it up to make sure no-one would mess with it- she made her way straight out of the building, looking around at the empty area.

Splashing through a few puddles on the way out of the mass of hastily set up tents, Shadow looked out over the city of Brockton Bay, frowning sadly at the very visible results of the Endbringer battle that had happened about four hours before.

"Damn." She sighed, huffing through her nose. Most of the damage was down near the beach, where the waves had come in, but the large tidal wave that Leviathan had brought in near the end of the fight had spread the damage through a lot of the rest of the city, knocking down a massive amount of buildings. His retreat had done similarly, Leviathan hurriedly pulling all of the water he'd brought with him back out into the ocean.

Shadow was unfortunately sure that at least a few injured or dead Capes had been taken with him, but it was always possible that they'd been left there from the Endbringer's natural water manipulation abilities.

Scanning across the rest of the city, she made a rough guess as to where Taylor's house was and was glad to see that it looked reasonably unaffected by the attack, and the area where the Den was seemed to be completely safe- which made sense, given that it was a good mile or so into the forest and the damage from the attack had been mostly confined to the area the Endbringer had been in the first place.

 _Still,_ Shadow thought, _that much damage is... one heck of a sight._

Turning away from the image of the wrecked city, Shadow quietly started walking again, plotting out how Team Inari could possibly attempt to help with the rebuilding- and coming up somewhat sort, aside from maybe levitating brickwork out of the way to clear areas faster or put up new buildings- when she noticed a familiar white-and-green costume sitting off on her own.

"Hey, Vista." She said softly, changing course to bring her next to the Cape.

"Oh. Hi, Shadow." The girl replied, smiling slightly. She sounded down too, and after a few seconds of thought Shadow reckoned she had the reason.

"I heard about Shadow Stalker while I was healing." Shadow told her, sitting down and curling her tails around her feet. "I'm sorry."

Vista shrugged. "I don't really mind too much. Stalker was a bit of a bitch, and she never liked me. I think because I'm a kid, so I'm supposed to be _'weak'_ and need protecting all the time." Her voice had taken on a low, bitter tone, and the Vulpix winced before putting a paw on her hand. "She was still a team mate, though, and I do feel bad for her family, but I can't really say I'll miss her much, I guess."

"Suppose that makes sense." Shadow hummed. "Is the rest of your team ok? And you?" A lot of the group had been brought in just after the attack that had brought Stalker down, but Shadow didn't remember seeing them, so presumably they'd all gone to Amy instead.

"We're all fine. Kid Win's going to need to repair his armour, and Aegis wasn't too happy after that happened, but they're all fine. Amy's really good at what she does."

"She is that, yeah." Shadow grinned. The pair sat in silence for a few minutes, before Shadow perked up, thinking of something that might help the young Ward get over- or at least forget about for a while- what happened. "Hey, how about I tell you a story?"

"A... story?" Vista looked down at her, and Shadow could imagine that there was a raised eyebrow behind her visor. "Why a story?"

"I just figured you might want something else to think about, is all." She shrugged. "And I know a lot of stories. Some my Momma told me when I was a kit, some I've picked up while travelling around with Eon and Inari, and _way_ too many of them are my own ones from stupid situations that we've gotten into."

"...You know what, sure." Vista said, after a moment. "A story would be kinda nice."

"Neat!" Shadow thought for a moment, tapping her paw against the slightly muddy dirt, then nodded to herself. "Ok. One Momma used to tell me was the story of the selfish human. I guess it was kinda supposed to be a cautioning story, but it's not a bad actual story too."

"Weird name."

"Mhm, I guess. Anyway, the story's about a human who one day encountered a Nine... tailed kitsune, like Eon is. The human insulted the _Kyuubi_ , which obviously angered them. The _Kyuubi_ cursed the human, but the human had friendly spirit with them who took the curse on herself to save the human. However, the human didn't care and used the _Kyuubi_ 's surprise to run away and save themself, abandoning the spirit. In their anger, the _Kyuubi_ made a prophesy that predicted that one day, the human would be reborn as a spirit as well, and they would bring about the end of the world by upsetting the balance of nature.

"Many years later, the prophecy came to pass, and the human was reborn as a grudge spirit. At the same time, another human was brought into the world as an ocean spirit, in the hopes that they would be able to remove the grudge spirit and rebalance nature again. The ocean spirit was helped by a lightning spirit, and they travelled together to find the _Kyuubi_ from the legend and discover if the legend was true. The grudge spirit was revealed, and the ocean and lightning spirits went to the peak of the world to awaken the Guardian of the Sky, a great green dragon, who then helped to save the world from the meteor that the arrival of the grudge spirit had caused. During this, though, the human that became the ocean spirit ended up lost in the netherworld, until the grudge spirit saved them and dragged their spirit back into the world.

"After this, the grudge spirit apologised to the ocean and lightning spirits for antagonising them while they were travelling, and requests that they escorted him to the _Kyuubi_ so that they could find the guardian spirit they abandoned as a human and apologise to them too. They did so, and the _Kyuubi_ sent them to the guardian spirit. However, the spirit had forgotten everything about their past life before the curse, and didn't remember what the human had done to them. The human that had become the grudge spirit apologised anyway, and the two went their separate ways, never to meet again."

Shadow looked up at the sky, sighing lightly. "For my kind, it's a cautioning tale about the power of our curses. We can do horrible things with them, if we wanted, and we should always try to control ourselves, and not get so angry that we hurt someone. But I know others use it as a warning against annoying the kitsune, and especially the _Kyuubi_ , since they're the main ones who cause curses from pulling on their tails. Kitsune tend to just prank the heck out of people."

"Wow." Vista muttered, after a moment of letting it sink in. "That's... cool." She paused, cocking her head. "Hey, if I pulled on Eon's tail, would I get cursed?"

"Yeah. The curses are kinda controlled by the _Kyuubi_ making it, pulling one tail is less than pulling on all nine, and if you do it while knowing what'll happen it's gonna be more serious than if you didn't, but you could get cursed if you did it to Eon. Pulling on one by accident with Eon and you'll probably just break your favourite mug or something." She grinned a little. "He's pretty relaxed when it comes to things like that."

"It was a very interesting story." Both girls jumped as a new voice broke into the conversation, whirling around to look up at Swarm, standing a number of feet away with her arms crossed over her chest. "And hello, Vista. I didn't realise you were awake, Shadow."

"Hi."

"I woke up a little while ago and decided to come look around." The Vulpix said easily. "What do you need?"

"I found where they've set up a cafeteria, so I started looking to see if I could find you."

"Oh, you want the illusion?" Shadow realised, standing. "Sure, no problem. Are you coming, Vista?"

"I suppose so." The young Cape agreed, following her up. "It's better than sitting out here brooding."

"Most things are." Swarm told her, as she crouched down and offered her arms to Shadow. She allowed herself to be picked up by her team mate, using the higher position to look around more as they began walking towards one of the more crowded buildings. "Though I don't have much of an opportunity to brood about things. Shadow here is way too bouncy for that."

"And Eon wouldn't let you get depressed about anything either." Shadow quipped, making Vista snort.

"Eon does seem like that." She nodded. "Though I think he sometimes seems really serious."

"He has to be, with _this_ one as a second-in-command." Swarm poked Shadow in the side sharply, making her yelp quietly, before leading them into a building.

It was surprisingly empty, but Shadow supposed that, being about four hours after the attack, most of the Capes that had been there would have gone home by now- or, for those in Brockton Bay, they might still be outside and trying to get started sorting things out. Still, there were a few people still around, and as she glanced about she spotted one that she knew.

Swarm clearly did too, since she headed straight over to the table she was sitting at. Vista trailed after them, since none of the other Wards were in the room and apparently she didn't know any of the other Capes there.

"Hey, Aquamarina." Swarm greeted politely, making the blue-wearing Cape look up in surprise. "Mind if the three of us sit here?"

"No, go ahead." She replied after a moment. "No-one else is here, after all."

"Thanks." Swarm gently placed Shadow onto the bench, a smile bleeding through her mask. "I'm pretty sure there's bacon up there, should I get you some?"

"Oh, _please_." She grinned, ears flicking up. "That'd be great, thank you. Healing was… not conductive to not being hungry?" Swarm chuckled.

"I know, you complain enough about it every time you come back from the hospital." The bug user said. "I think I've gotten more practise cooking in the last few weeks than I have in my entire life." Shadow stuck her tongue out at her, making the Capes snicker. "Mature of you."

"Thanks." Shadow grinned as her team mate walked away, Vista going with her to get food. She tracked them for a moment, then looked back at Aquamarina, who'd gone back to her plate of eggs and sausages with a slightly awkward air. "Hey, I never got to say thank you for earlier on."

"What for?" She blinked, startled, and stared at her.

"For bringing Eon in when he got hurt, for taking me up to the storm, and for helping me find Swarm earlier." Shadow explained. "It was really nice of you to do that, especially since you didn't have to."

"Of course I did." Aquamarina seemed vaguely insulted, her crystal wings shuffling behind her. "I was nearby when Eon was hurt, and you had a way to end the fight, so of course I was going to help you. I couldn't just leave things as they were."

"You didn't have to help with Swarm, though. You were just there, and you could've left to go and do more searching outside, but you took me with you and helped me find her." Shadow pawed slightly at her muzzle, discreetly brushing away the tears that had formed. "I've been avoiding thinking about what might've happened if you hadn't helped, so thank you for that, if nothing else at all."

"You… really, you don't need to thank me for that, either. I couldn't just leave someone to die out there, and you were certain she was alive, so I knew I had to help you." Aquamarina returned, blushing slightly under her mask. "And it was easier for me to help you than for you to go find someone else to take you. You might've lost the scent, and I knew I could get you to where I'd seen her last."

"Still, thank you. I don't think I could've coped if I'd've lost her." Hesitantly, Aquamarina patted her on the paw sitting on the table, then withdrew back into her food as Vista and Swarm arrived.

"Here you go, Shadow." Swarm said, placing the plate in front of her before sitting on her right hand side. Vista somewhat awkwardly took a place on her left, and Shadow looked up at her friend with a smile.

"Thanks, Swarm." The Vulpix replied. "Now, looky here?" The three chuckled at her phrasing as Swarm looked down at her, Shadow frowning as she pictured the illusion she wanted to layer over her head. "Alright, done."

"Nice." Shadow made sure to keep her focus as Swarm lifted up the lower part of her mask to let her eat, and once the girl had started tied off the illusion and lifted her knife and fork with telekinesis to start on the massive amount of bacon and sausages that she'd been given.

"Wow, that's really cool." Vista exclaimed quietly, and Shadow shot a sideways glance to see that she was staring at the illusion, as was Aquamarina. "Weird looking, but cool."

"Is that one of your powers?"

"Yeah, illusions." Shadow explained. "This one's simple, I just stick a field over her head that looks kinda like static. No-one can see her face, and no-one wants to spend a long time staring at her trying to look past it because it's kinda hard to look at."

"I can sure see that." Aquamarina commented, shaking her head and tearing her gaze away. "It's tricky. Impressive, though, for sure."

"Thanks!" Shadow grinned, ignoring the slight strain of holding the illusion there. "Oh, by the way, Aquamarina, this is Vista, she's one of the local Wards. Vista, meet Aquamarina, an independent from Los Angeles. She's the one who helped get Eon and Swarm back to the healing area, and she helped me do the Thunder thing at the end of the fight."

"Nice to meet you." The space-warper offered, holding out her hand. The flier shook it, before Vista looked back to Shadow. "So that lightning bolt was yours, then?"

"Yeah. I got lucky as heck with it, but it's one of the lineage Moves I have from my great aunt. I need something or someone else to do the clouds, that's one thing I've never been able to do no matter how hard I try, and I need to get lucky with the Charging, too. I went positive, and I just got lucky that that was what I needed." Shadow smiled, blushing slightly, hovering her fork in midair. "I didn't know how effective it would be, either."

"It's a good thing it worked, though." Vista commented. "That fight was starting to get a bit worrying."

"It can get a lot worse." A new voice put in. Everyone turned to see Vicky and Amy standing next to the table, plates in hand. "Mind if we join you?"

"Go ahead, Amy." Shadow stated, among the other's nods. "Everyone, this is Amy and Vicky, also known as Panacea and Glory Girl. Amy, Vicky, I guess you know everyone from the Bay, but this is Aquamarina. She helped me with the Thunder." She added, for Vicky's sake.

"Oh, cool." Vicky beamed, waving hello. "You took the lightning bolt?"

"I didn't get hit." Aquamarina demurred. "I don't think it'd be a good idea to take a lightning strike when I fly using my wings. I just took her up into the air so she could use it."

"That's fair. I know my invulnerability can take one, but it's a better idea to avoid them if I can."

"Oh, Amy mentioned something about that." Shadow remembered. "Something about prior experience?" Amy laughed loudly, covering Vicky's groan.

"Yeah, she is. She went out flying in a storm. Turns out, flying high in the air during a thunderstorm is a good way to get hit." Amy told them. "I had to put up with her whinging for weeks afterwards, and she ended up grounded for being irresponsible."

The story caused a large number of other laughs, and the entire thing dissolved into a story session, with the older Capes telling tales of patrols and Swarm chipping in on occasion with things that had happened, and Shadow returning the favour with some stories she'd heard from her parents when she was younger- modified for a different audience, of course.

 _In the end,_ Shadow thought, listening to Vista talk about Clockblocker's name announcement, _this isn't such a bad way to end an attack after all._

* * *

 **AN: People are recovering from the attack, and Vicky was not thinking. Like, at all. Mistakes were made.**

 **Also, I don't own _Pokemon Red/Blue Rescue Team,_ which is where the tale of the selfish human comes from. It's one of the in-game stories/plot points.**

 **And poor Assault.**

 **I think this chapter also takes us over 100k words, too, so yay for that!**


	19. Chapter 16

**I do not own the tale of the selfish human, nor the one about the Burned Tower. The thing to do with the netherworld is partially my own.**

* * *

 **A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 16.**

 **Stories, musings, and Scream.**

* * *

A good half an hour later, both the conversation and the late-ish breakfast was over, and the group went their separate ways. Aquamarina had made her way towards the teleporters, having decided that there wasn't really anything else she could do in the Bay, so she was going back to LA, but have slipped a phone number to Swarm with the offer of keeping in touch and helping out if they needed it- an offer that touched both girls. Vicky was heading back into the field, planning on seeing if she could help out with moving some of the rubble out of the way, and Amy was going to be making rounds to check on some of the people that were still recovering from things she couldn't heal entirely.

Shadow had offered to go and help, but the healer had firmly rebuffed her, telling her that she was healing herself, so she shouldn't need to worry about doing anything right now.

Vista had wandered off to try and find her remaining team mates, seeming in a much better mood than she had been when Shadow found her, and the two members of Team Inari were heading back to the recovery room, where Eon was still sleeping off his injury.

Shadow was incredibly surprised that he was still unconscious, but according to Aquamarina, he'd been thrown by Leviathan head-first into a wall after the impact he'd landed, when he'd seemed a little disoriented, which had lead to Shadow changing her opinion.

As far as she knew, unless Eon had picked something up without telling her, he didn't have any decent Defence boosting Moves, so an impact like that would've hurt, even with the fact that she knew they were tougher than the norm for this world.

Though the titbit that Leviathan had used all _nine_ of Eon's tails for leverage in his throw made her curious as to what sort of curse would've been placed on the creature. Hopefully, it was something that would lead to the Endbringer losing the next time he tried to attack.

"Hey, Shadow." The Vulpix looked up, tilting her head back to meet the orange eyes of Swarm's mask. "That story you were telling Vista earlier on... is that actually a story you know?"

"Yeah, it is." She nodded. "And the other ones I was telling earlier are as well. I just adjusted them to remove the mentions of Pokemon, is all."

"Oh. Would you mind telling me the real ones?"

"Sure." Swarm briefly took one hand out from under Shadow's forepaws to open the door, then deposited her team mate on the bed before closing it again. Shadow dropped her bag on the floor next to her, having picked it up telekinetically on the way in, and settled down. "So, that first one, the one I was telling Vista, is actually called the Selfish Human, though it's not really a cautioning tale, it's something that actually happened in the past of our world. It was before I was born, and before Momma was as well. Grandma Ninetails was alive, though, she was about forty or fifty- that's really young for our kind, by the way. Ninetails can live up to about a thousand- and it was during her travelling years. She was in another region of the world when the meteor came down, and hurried to ask around the nearest cities and towns for information, eventually being given the entire story by the pair of Pokemon that were central to it.

"Basically, a human was travelling with a Pokemon called Gardevoir, and they encountered a Ninetails on the way. It's thought that the Ninetails might've been Inari himself, but we don't know. The human offended the Ninetails somehow, probably by pulling his tails, so the Ninetails cursed the human. But the Gardevoir, who was extremely loyal to her human partner, took the curse herself to save him. The human abandoned the Gardevoir, since she was now cursed and would've been a problem, and this further enraged the Ninetails, who prophesied that the human would be reborn as a Pokemon, and the appearance of that Pokemon in the world would doom the balance of nature in the world. This happened many years ago, and Grandma thought it might be the reason why Inari is rarely seen by humans or Pokemon; he was disgusted at the show of selfishness that the human made, so he avoids both species to stop himself seeing people like that again.

"Anyway, years and years later, a human is reborn as a Pokemon. They became a Totodile, and were found in the woods by their partner Pokemon, who was a Pikachu. They formed a Rescue Team, like Eon and I, because the balance of the world had been disturbed and things were becoming more dangerous for normal Pokemon. The human had lost all their memories of before, only knowing that they were once human and their name, but they worked with the Pikachu to help Pokemon.

"One day, they spoke to a Pokemon called Xatu, who were known for telling the future, in hopes of finding out why the Totodile had become a Pokemon. The Xatu told them this story, but another Pokemon, a Gengar, overheard and spread the rumour that the Totodile was the human in the legend, and that they needed to be killed to return the world's balance. The two of them were chased out of town and eventually found their way to the top of a mountain, assisted by an Absol who could sense disasters and knew the two needed help, where they met the Ninetails of the legend and learned that the Totodile wasn't the human of the legend, but the human was alive.

"The two return home and tell the story, and Gengar and his team are chased away in turn. They continued doing missions to help people, when one day Xatu told them that a falling star was heading towards the planet, and that that was causing the imbalance in nature. A Gardevoir then visited the human in a dream, explaining that their role was to save the Pokemon world, and they'd allowed themselves to be transformed into a Pokemon and lose their memories, but the dream ended before they found out how.

"Totodile and Pikachu journeyed to the top of the Sky Tower, where Rayquaza lives, and asked him to help destroy the meteor, which is his job. The explosion caused Totodile's spirit to end up in the netherworld, which is a sort of a between world where gravity is all wrong and twisted, and nothing can be found. Gengar leads them back to the Pokemon world, where the group celebrate saving the world.

"A few months passed, and the Gengar reappears, having left his team and vanished. One of his team mates, a Medicham, revealed that he was trying to climb Mount Freeze, which is where the Totodile and Pikachu had found the Ninetails from the legend. They go after him at the request of Medicham and Ekans, and the Gengar apologises for his actions towards them. He reveals that he was the selfish human the Ninetails cursed, and he wanted to ask the Ninetails to help him apologise to Gardevoir. They found Ninetails, who sent them to a place called Murky Cave, where Gardevoir was living as a half-there spirit, the curse having sent her partly into the netherworld, allowing her to visit dreams, but leaving her anchored to the cave forever. She had also lost all memory of her human partner, only knowing that she'd been cursed by a Ninetails long ago. Gengar still apologised, and decided to remain in the cave with Gardevoir until the curse ended or she regained her memories."

Shadow shook her head slightly, her voice having become more and more introspective as she spoke, and dismissed the faint illusions she'd been using to illustrate her story as she did. "Grandma met the Totodile and Pikachu months after this, and as far as they knew Gengar and Gardevoir were still waiting together in the cave."

"That's... wow." Swarm muttered, a frown in her voice. "It's kind of strange... then again, I've heard a lot of mythology from my world, so something like that really happening isn't that odd." She rested a hand on Eon's back. "Could you tell me more about that netherworld?"

"Sure." Shadow nodded. "I don't know as much about this, but the netherworld is a place where gravity is wrong and nothing much exists. There's no Pokemon and no humans, though apparently fruited trees can grow there, and you can find both human and Pokemon settlements there. It's made up of floating platforms, and as you go between them gravity shifts so you can't really fall unless you jump away from everything, and there's no ground either, just a bottomless pit of swirling blues and purple. It's also closely related to the dream world, or might _be_ the dream world, no-one's quite sure. According to some of the Pokemon that've migrated to our side of the world from the human world, the humans sometimes refer to it as the Distortion World, on account of how everything's twisted and distorted there, with buildings and stuff looking like they're in a warped mirror. The Mythical Shaymin can open portals to the netherworld with their Seed Flare Move, and Giratina is apparently the keeper of that world who can open portals on any reflective surface, allowing them to pass between the _'real'_ and distorted worlds."

"So it's like an afterlife?"

"Oh, no." Shadow shook her head rapidly. "Not at all. It's just another world, that you could theoretically go to, but you'd need a Shaymin or Giratina to open the portal there."

"I see." Swarm paused for a minute, taking that in, before cocking her head. "I've heard the name Giratina before somewhere..."

"I sorta mentioned that earlier, in the story about the serpent being sealed in a golden stone. I don't _think_ that one's real, but it might be. Giratina is the serpent-like Pokemon that was sealed away due to fighting with their siblings, Dialga and Palkia, and causing disruption in the world. They only look like a serpent in the netherworld, though. In our world, they have six legs and the six wings become two, like this." She formed an illusion of the two forms, much smaller than they really were, and let Swarm inspect them. "I slipped up a bit telling the story and used the name Giratina, but I don't think anyone else noticed."

"Which is good, I guess." The bug user commented. "What about the story about the burning tower?"

"That one's real, but it's actually more of a human one, about the creation of the three Legendary Beasts. The Pokemon one is a bit different, though since there's a lot of different versions of them- not as many as common Pokemon, but more than one trio- this one's true of one of them, but not all." Settling back down, having sat forward to form her illusions properly, Shadow rested her head on her two front paws and curled her tails close to her body, shuffling slightly to position herself comfortably. "See, that one started in a city called Ecruteak, a human city, which had two tall towers..."

* * *

"Vicky!"

The unexpected shout made the flying Brute blink, but she ignored it for a moment to remain focused on holding the segment of building she was under upright, waiting for the Cape underneath it to finish pulling out the body of the unfortunate other Cape that had been standing in the wrong place when it fell. That Cape, some out-of-towner that hadn't left yet and was sticking around to try and help find any more bodies- she _thought_ they might be PRT affiliated in some way, but Vicky would be the first to admit that she'd never really paid as much attention to that as she should- gave her a signal and she slowly floated out from under the brickwork, letting it fall to the ground as she did.

That job done, she looked around and up towards the shout.

"Hey, Eric!" She called back, lifting a few more feet off the ground to close the distance with her cousin, floating on a shield. "What's up?"

"Mom's trying to call New Wave together, as much as she can." He explained. "I volunteered to come find you, and Dad went to go get Amy from the medical place- though I'd think there'd be no-one left in there, with how she and Shadow went through everyone." Vicky chuckled.

"Yeah, they did a really great job. Anyway, just gimme a minute, and I'll be along." Her cousin nodded, so she dropped back down a bit to speak with the Cape she'd been working with, who quickly waved her off to go be with her family.

Suppressing a wince at the slight reminder of the situation, she started following Eric back to where her aunt was waiting.

"How's Crystal doing?" She asked, as a way to fill the silence.

"She's alright now, just a bit shocked is all." He replied. "But Amy and Shadow did really good work, so she's ok physically." Vicky nodded thoughtfully.

Crystal had ended up caught in the massive tsunami that had come some time after Shadow had knocked her out, which Amy had filled her in on during the intervening downtime between her ending her round of healing and the pair of them going to find somewhere to get some food. The invincible Cape definitely felt sorry for her other cousin, given that she _wasn't_ invulnerable and her shields weren't as strong as her brother's, so being stuck _just_ far away from the safe zones and _just_ too low for her to fly out of the way would've been terrifying. Luckily, she'd managed to escape mostly alright, if one considered having both arms broken and a couple of ribs cracked ' _alright'_ \- which Vicky did, given that the wave came from Leviathan and probably should've been much worse.

Amy had fixed that, and Shadow had dealt with the concussion she'd also been given, then a couple of PRT folk had handed her over to her mother at the earliest opportunity.

"That's good. I was kinda worried when I heard what happened to her." Eric shot her a sideways glance, and Vicky blushed. "I had a bit of a bitch fit when I heard about Mom, so Shadow put me to sleep. I slept through the entire rest of the battle, and a good bit of the early aftermath stuff as well. I only woke up about six."

"Damn, you really did miss a lot." He chuckled. "I guess Amy filled you in?"

"Yeah, between her healing and getting some breakfast." Vicky nodded. "So, what's Aunt Sarah want to talk to us about?"

"I don't know, she just wanted to get everyone together." He gave her an apologetic look, then continued, "I think it might be something to do with Aunt Carol." Vicky winced and bit her lip, but nodded again, and the two continued to fly in silence towards their destination, which turned out to be one of the spare medical tents that hadn't been taken down yet.

Amy was already waiting there with their dad, and Vicky hurried over to hug both of them before drifting to gently wrap her arms around Crystal as well. She greeted her aunt and uncle just as quickly, before settling down to listen to what her aunt wanted to say.

"I'm glad you're ok, Vicky." Neil said, before they began. "We heard you go down from the armbands, and since we didn't see you come back out for a while we were worried about you." Vicky blushed again.

"I'm fine, I didn't even get hurt. Shadow knocked me out 'cause I went a bit mental after hearing about Mom." The entire group winced, and Sarah cleared her throat slightly.

"I suppose that brings me to what I wanted to ask, how you three were coping with it." She grimaced. "Though I _also_ suppose that gives me an answer for Vicky…"

"I'm actually doing ok." Vicky butted in. "Shadow and I had a bit of a chat-"

"After you went off at her for putting you to sleep in the first place." Amy snarked.

"She forgave me, and admitted that it probably wasn't the best thing, even if it was the only option." She countered. "Anyway, we had a chat, and she helped me out a bit. I still feel bad, sure, but I've got better ways of spending my time than brooding, or attempting to go on self-righteous quests to punch Leviathan in the face for vengeance." Amy snorted at that.

"I'm… fairly ok too." She agreed. "I didn't really have the time to talk to Shadow like you did- during the battle we were either running about healing, or I was comforting her when Swarm and Eon went down- but we spoke a little afterwards about it all. She's pretty good at being comforting."

"Must be all the fuzzies." Crystal put it, making them all chuckle.

"Probably. She's adorable at the best of times, and she doesn't mind you hugging her for comfort- it's like holding a giant hot water bottle, at least when she's not running out of energy. She said it's something to do with her inner flame and aura, which I think I'd like to ask more about- but she's also pretty good at giving advice about things." Amy smiled. "But yeah, I'm not too bad. I mean, I'll miss her, sure, but Carol… wasn't always the nicest to me."

Vicky grimaced, leaning over and squeezing her sister's arm, before throwing her own around her shoulders and pulling Amy to her side.

Mark merely shrugged, apparently not wanting to talk about it.

Amy paused for a moment, frowning deeply and chewing her lip as she thought, then her eyes widened. "I think I need to go talk to Shadow."

"Why?" Sarah asked. "Is something wrong?"

"No, not wrong, but I need to check something about how her powers work, because I think I might've just had an absolute breakthrough on the medical side of things if it works like I hope it does." Amy said hurriedly, shifting out from under Vicky's arm and going to stand. The blonde pulled her back down with a slight smile.

"Hey, running off out of nowhere's _my_ thing, remember?" She joked. "C'mon, Ames, explain!"

"Shadow's healing power is really fucking weird." The other girl told them bluntly. "The ' _Heal Bell'_ part of it especially."

"Excuse me?"

"Shadow describes her power in two ways; Heal _Pulse_ , which is what does the injuries and energy restoring thing, and then Heal _Bell_ , which is the weird part." Amy replied to her uncle. "We've talked about it a couple of times after clearing out the hospital, and according the her, the Heal Bell version is what deals with a lot of other things, mostly mental stuff like concussions, but it'll also heal burns, poisoning since the Pulse thing misses that for some reason, most forms of artificial sleep though it doesn't work on everything, stuff like that. I'm not sure which of the two is the thing healing brain injuries, but maybe it's a mix of both. Anyway, I'm pretty sure it'll be able to do something to Master effects, which I think might be something to talk to the PRT about testing, and I'm almost _certain_ it'd do something to chemical imbalances too." The healer was almost bouncing in her seat, something so unusual for the quiet girl that her cousin commented on it.

"Why's that so interesting, Ames?"

" _Because_ , Crystal, mental illnesses like depression are because of chemical imbalances, which I can't fix because it's to do with the brain-"

"But Shadow's power does." Vicky suddenly realised.

"Wait, go back a minute, what's that about Master effects?" Sarah interrupted.

"Oh, since Shadow's power can target and cure mental afflictions, I figured she might be able to do something about Master effects that target a person's brain." Amy replied quickly. "I figured we'd need the help of the PRT for something like that, since they'd probably be able to get their hands on someone suffering from a Master effect a lot easier than a couple of independents would, but if it worked then who knows?" The healer grinned. "Do you think we'd be able to arrange that, Aunt Sarah?"

Neil answered for her. "If you and your friend have a way to clear up Master effects, I doubt they'll be saying no to your request for help." Sarah nodded absently.

"Do you mind if I go see if I can get Shadow, so we can talk about that?"

"Go ahead." Sarah nodded again, apparently thinking hard. "We'd probably have to call the Director and explain all this to her, but when it comes to important things like this she's normally fairly reasonable…" The team leader was still muttering to herself as Vicky and Amy left, the blonde taking her sister in her arms to fly the two of them over to the medical area Team Inari would likely be in.

"Why do I feel like you're leaving something out there?" Vicky accused lightly, drifting slowly towards their destination.

"Because you're you, and you're nosey." Amy snarked back, glancing up with a grin. "But yeah, I kinda was. I'm almost certain Shadow's power deals with depression, given that it's apparently gotten rid of mine."

Vicky froze in mid air for a moment, staring.

"…Huh." She finally managed, dropping back towards the ground. "I guess you _have_ been a lot less grumpy lately. Ever since you and Shadow first started doing hospital rounds together, actually."

"That's when I've pinned it down to too." Amy nodded. "Though…" She looked around a bit, then lowered her voice, "I also only noticed it when I realised something had happened to your aura."

"Pardon?"

"Your aura's seemed a lot stronger than normal to me recently. I figured I was just imagining things, since no-one else noticed, but then I realised that I'd been caught in Shadow's healing blast a lot since that first started happening."

"Are you saying…" Vicky tried, dropping heavily onto the ground.

"I don't know for _sure_ ," Amy stressed, "And honestly I doubt it really is, but if your power acts like something of a Master effect, even if it just prompts a person's brain to produce more of a certain chemical, then that means that Shadow's power most likely _does_ work on those sorts of power." The brunette bit her lip. "Then again, I don't really know if that counts as a Master power, since it's still kinda a Shaker…"

"No… no, it does sound more like a Master power when you put it that way." Vicky admitted, leaning against the wall. "Fucking… no wonder Mom was always so forceful about calling it a Shaker field, the PR nightmare from being known as a Master publicly…"

"Yeah, you'd've been fucked, and so would New Wave for having a Master that makes people like her, and that couldn't happen." Amy sighed bitterly, and Vicky joined her.

"Dammit, Ames, I wish you hadn't brought that up." The Brute grimaced. "Knowing that my power's technically probably a Master effect isn't the greatest thing to be adding to my pile of shit today."

"Sorry, Vicky." Amy winced sympathetically. "But I guess it's one more reason to keep control over your aura? Besides, at least Shadow can fix pretty much any damage done by it."

"Yeah." She pushed off the wall again and floated after her sister, into the medical tent. "C'mon, let's just go get Shadow so I can stop thinking about it." Amy nodded, making a beeline for the area on the other side of the tent, which was blocked off with a hastily created wall and door, while Vicky floated after her, deep in thought.

Amy knocked on the door, and a few seconds later Inari's insect controller- Swarm- opened the door, her head tilted slightly to one side. "Hello, Panacea." She greeted warmly, a hint of insect buzz in her voice. "Is there something you needed?"

"Is Shadow still awake? We were hoping to borrow her for something." Amy replied, smiling at her. Vicky floated over her shoulder to look slightly into the room, seeing the sleeping form of Eon still lying along a bed, while Shadow was lying next to him on a separate bed, looking up towards the door. A couple of strangely shaped illusions were in the middle of dispelling themselves in the centre of the room, making Vicky curious as to what they were, but the small fox jumped down and trotted over to the door.

"What's up, Amy?" She asked. "Do you need my help healing someone?"

"Sort of." Vicky's sister waved a hand towards her. "I was speculating on some stuff during a bit of a New Wave meeting, and I wanted to see if you would be ok talking to my Aunt Sarah about some of your healing powers?"

Shadow glanced up at Swarm, then shrugged. "Sure, no problem. Swarm, can you stay with Eon? Just in case he wakes up."

"No problem, Shadow." Swarm nodded, crouching down and running a hand down her back. "You go help out, I'm sure Eon'll be fine."

"Thanks." Following Amy and Vicky out of the tent, Swarm closing the door behind them, Shadow continued, "So what's the situation, exactly?"

"It's mostly to do with some of the stuff you've said about how your Heal Bell works, since it got me thinking about a couple of things, mostly just wondering how it might interact with some other stuff." Amy half-explained, kneeling and holding out her arms for Shadow to climb into. The brunette was promptly picked up by Vicky, who started flying them back towards the tent New Wave had commandeered. "We're back!" She called, as Vicky landed and let the two out of her arms. Brushing aside the entrance to the tent, the five Capes inside looked over to them with smiles, and Amy put Shadow back onto the floor. "Shadow, this is our family. That's Dad, Aunt Sarah and Uncle Neil are over there, and those're our cousins, Crystal and Eric. Everyone, this is Shadow."

"Nice to meet you all." Shadow grinned, ducking her head slightly in an approximation of a bow. "Now, Amy's being all mysterious, so what did you need me for?"

"Amy said that your healing abilities have a thing for mental issues?" Mark asked in return, quietly.

"Oh, sort of." Shadow acknowledged, as the three sat down. "Heal Bell works strangely, but for the most part it'll work on mental stuff. Amy's watched it before, something to do with chemicals?"

"Would you mind giving a demonstration, Shadow?" Sarah requested, as Amy sidled along and took her dad's hand.

"Sure, no problem." Closing her eyes and inhaling deeply, there was a moment's pause before she howled, a barely-there wave of energy following.

Amy's eyes widened as she saw the slight shifts happening in Mark's biology.

"And that works on most things?" Neil questioned.

"When they're combined, yeah. Not so much on their own, it's a bit fiddly." Shadow shrugged.

"Do you think it'd work on Master effects?" Vicky put in, interested. Shadow paused, thinking.

"I'm... not sure." She admitted. "It doesn't do anything to Swarm when she's caught in them, after all, and that's a Master power, but maybe it's only certain types?"

"Amy came up with the idea." Sarah explained. "I'd like to offer to contact the PRT on Team Inari's behalf, in an attempt to get some Master victims that could be used for you to test that."

"If you could cure Master victims, that'd be awesome." Crystal put in, grinning widely. "I mean, there's loads of different Master victims in the world, an no-one can figure out how to get rid of the effects, aside from finding the Master."

"Thank you, Lady Photon." Shadow smiled widely, again giving one of those slight bows. "That'd be great, I'd love to be able to help more people that way."

"I'll make contact with the PRT as soon as I can. Would I be able to contact you through Amy at some point?"

"No problem, assuming Amy doesn't mind. We'll probably end up meeting up to do more healing pretty soon anyway, so we'll end up being near each other." Shadow glanced up at the healer, who nodded.

"I don't have any problems with that." Amy agreed.

"I don't know when I'll be able to make contact with them for you, given the entire clean up operation from the aftermath of this attack." Sarah added. "But I'll do my best to put this forward as soon as possible. Being able to cure Master victims isn't something that should be put off for long."

"Don't try rushing it on my behalf." Shadow objected. "The PRT and Protectorate are gonna have more stuff to do than deal with a random independent for a while, because other things should definitely take priority over it. Still, just passing it on for us is great, thank you."

"You've been helping take a lot off of Amy's workload in the last few weeks." Neil replied. "It's the least New Wave can do to thank you for that." Shadow nodded, though Vicky got the impression that she was discreetly rolling her eyes at them.

"Amy and I have a lot in common in terms of wanting to help people. The fact that she volunteered to help me get in touch with the hospital to help out means enough to me as-is." The fox assured them, before glancing back out of the tent. "And, pardon me, but is it ok if I go? I want to stay near Eon."

"Of course, your team mate's injured, you should be with him." Mark said. "Vicky, would you mind...?"

"I'll drop her back." The blonde nodded, standing. Shadow smiled again at the rest of the room, shook Sarah's hand when it was offered, and pattered out with Vicky.

Somewhat warily, she lifted the fox into her arms, and Shadow laughed. "I won't bite, you know." Vicky giggled slightly and took off, leisurely drifting towards the tent Eon was in.

"I know, I know." She smiled. "Hey, out of curiosity, what was with the little bow-thing you were doing? It's not like it was a formal thing, I've seen you doing it when talking to the Wards or the Protectorate on patrol, and I've seen you give Amy or the hospital staff one as well a couple of times."

"Bowing in our... culture... is a bit weird." Shadow answered carefully. "Bowing deeply to someone is a sign on respect, and it's normally pretty formal; I'd bow to a _Kyuubi_ normally, though I don't do it with Eon because he's my team leader, so I only do that when he's pulling rank, so to speak, or I'd bow to someone high up like the Director or Chief Director, or Legend, because they're powerful leaders. Little bows are more like acknowledgements of advice or gifts, like the fact that your Aunt is offering to contact the PRT in my name to request that help with the Master thing. With a lot of the other stuff, it's because they gave advice in terms of how to handle being a Cape team here on Bet, things like that."

"Weird."

"It is a bit. Technically I should've bowed deeper to your Aunt, since Lady Photon's the team leader and she has more power than me, being older and with more influence, but she's also got no real influence over me, whereas someone like Legend... they have a lot more direct power over what I'd do, because they have the power to declare me or Inari a real threat, so they have to be bowed to that way." Vicky blinked.

"I see." She said, thinking. "What about with Lung? Apparently you _and_ Eon bowed there."

"Respect of his abilities and returning the respect he was giving us." She explained. "And in my case, following the lead of my superior before staying out of the way, because he clearly wanted to talk to Eon and not me."

"Huh."

"Our culture has a lot of weird things like that. We've been teaching Swarm some, since she's our team mate, but for the most part she'd never need to know it because it's unlikely she'll run into them." Shadow chuckled. "I mean, what's the use in knowing that if you meet a Uxie you should bow deeply in respect to a higher superior, then keep your head lowered and eyes down in deference, if you're never going to meet a Uxie?" Vicky raised an eyebrow as she descended, but Shadow didn't elaborate, so she made a quiet promise to herself to do some searching around as soon as she could to try and find out what a Uxie was.

Vicky knelt down to let Shadow out of her arms, stretching slightly as she did so. "Thanks for the lift back, and thanks to your family for offering that." Shadow shook herself out slightly as Vicky smiled.

"No problem. Hope Eon gets better soon, and say hello to Swarm for me as well." She waved, and Shadow lifted a paw in response as the blonde flew off back towards her family, and the fox went inside to sit with her team again.

* * *

"What on earth _happened_ there?" Alexandria, also known as Rebecca Costa-Brown, demanded, rubbing her arm irately. " _How_ did that even happen?"

"How did that little fox thing have the power to do that?" David added. "And since when could either of them shoot _lightning_ , anyway?"

"No idea." Paul shrugged, leaning against the wall. He was suspiciously calm about the entire situation, all things considered, but he'd been well out of the way of the lightning strike and therefore hadn't really gotten much of the effect.

David had been somewhat closer, and _had_ felt the electricity booming past, while Rebecca had taken it head on.

A couple of bandages wrapped around the upper part of her arm under her costume told the story of how that went.

"It's more interesting that it managed to scare away Leviathan, I think." He continued with a shrug. "If those two happen to have a way to do something similar to Behemoth and Simurgh, we might be able to start ending the attacks far quicker by just aiming either Shadow or Eon at them."

"We need to find out more about them." The Doctor said, from her place on the other end of the room. "They're far more powerful than any normal Trigger I've ever seen, and neither of them are one of ours. I want to know where they came from, and if we can duplicate it."

"What about their team mate? Swarm?"

"She's nothing special, just an insect controller." She dismissed. "There's no reason to try looking into her at all. We should focus on Shadow and Eon." Paul looked somewhat uncertain about that, but said nothing.

The meeting continued in the background, but Contessa didn't bother to pay attention to it. If she needed to know something, the Path would tell her where to find it out.

Instead, she focused on a new issue.

 _Path to finding out more about Shadow and Eon._

 _Entities not found._

 _Path to locating Shadow and Eon._

 _Entities not found._

 _Path to discovering Eon's past._

 _Entity not found._

 _Path to discovering Shadow's past._

 _Entity not found._

This pattern continued every time either of their names came up in the Path request. Even using them as a secondary, for example _Path to using Swarm to get information on Shadow and Eon_ came out with the same failure.

It was unsettling.

Especially as Contessa never normally got an error like that, even from her blind spots like the Entities, Endbringers and Eidolon. With them, things just blanked out silently into nothing, forcing her to reset the Path to get around it.

Having a pair of Capes that just outright blocked her abilities in a way that seemed to give her no way around it was… unnerving, for someone who needed the Path to make sure the world didn't end, and wanted to try using the targets to help save it.

* * *

 _Ocean swirled around them, rain pounding on it from above and joining the shifting of the tides. Debris from the slowly-sinking islands started forcing waves to form, but with a moments thought they were frozen, lowered back into the water to join the shifting._

 _Their eyes flickered back and forth through the water, the dust and blood and bodies having no effect on their vision, searching for the thing they had been tracking, the thing that had led them to here…_

There. _A faint ripple in the water, invisible to normal eyes yet painfully obvious to them, and they shifted to trace it, darting towards it with no regard for anything else and circling once._

 _A shield, overlaid over the city and hiding it from view. It had drifted here with the currents, but now with them there, the currents were shifting too fast to follow, leaving it trapped._

 _The ocean began to compress, pressing down on the shield with all the force they could manage, pulling with it all the debris in the area and forcing them down too. Things impact their back, but they ignore it, too focused on their goal to care- and beyond the ability to care in themselves._

 _A flash of yellow. The shield breaks, water and pieces of island rushing in, down on top of it, and the sound of shattering. Crystal shapes float out of the ruins, and they wait for a moment before forcing more water around them, shattering them._

 _Something floats out of the ruins after them, a small oval shape, and after a moment they decide that it was merely another piece of rubble, drifting off into the ocean._

 _They relaxed, their orders complete, and then something else impacted their back._

 _Another instinct took over, orders to fight, and so they did, lunging out of the ocean and towards the source of the great roar that echoed around them, their tail impacting the rubble behind them and sending it flying out into further waters, away from them._

 _Beneath them, the island continued to sink, and the waves continued to be suppressed, used instead for the sole purpose of pushing the evidence of the main target away._

 _Red and yellow flickered, the area of water shining, and then there was nothing._

 _Not even them._


	20. Chapter 17

**A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 17.**

 **Awakening, recollections, and elsewheres.**

* * *

The world was spinning.

Given that, as far as he could tell, he was stationary, Eon was pretty sure the world wasn't supposed to be spinning.

Unless he'd been put on some kind of spinning ride, like the cup thing Shadow had spent a lot of time on that one time they'd been to a park after completing a mission in one of the further away cities. She'd spent a lot of time on there, and she'd gone all dizzy afterwards, so he'd had to carry her back to the place they were staying and wait for her to get better.

That would make the world spinning make sense, but Eon was still pretty sure he was lying still, and he'd probably notice if he was in a moving cup being spun around.

Hesitantly, he cracked open an eye, then immediately groaned when the lights seemed _far_ too bright for wherever he was.

"Eon's awake!" A familiar voice said, too loudly. He whined slightly.

"Eon." Another familiar voice spoke, accompanied by a poke in the side. "Eon, open your eyes." He did, finding that it was still slightly too bright, but his face was being shadowed by the blurry form of...

"Shadow?" He tried quietly, coughing as his voice rasped out and his ears rebelled slightly at the sound.

"Oh, good. Here, you should drink this." Spotting the familiar shade of Shadow's Extrasensory attack lifting a bowl over to him, he let Swarm help him lift his head and drank, feeling some of the headache leave him, though it was still too bright and loud. "You ok now?"

"Bit better." He grumbled, slumping back and closing his eyes. "What happened?"

"You overboosted yourself and dive-bombed Leviathan." Shadow reminded him bluntly. "The damn thing caught your tails and sent you flying, broke _way_ too many bones... you had to be dragged in by one of the fliers to be healed. You've been unconscious since."

"The battle's over." Swarm added, carefully resting a hand on his side. "Shadow went out and dropped lightning on him, with some help from Aquamarina- she's the Cape that brought you in, and she helped rescue and get me back for healing as well."

"You got hurt?"

"The wave." Eon's eyes snapped open again, and he twisted his head as much as he could to see Swarm flexing her arm. "Knocked a building on me. Most the rubble ended up around me, but my arm got crushed. I got really lucky; the weight of the bricks stopped me bleeding out, Shadow gave me enough of a heal to keep that up, then Panacea was able to regrow my arm for me." He looked over her arm, which was missing chunks of the sleeve of her costume. "We had to cut a lot of it off, some of it was stuck in my arm. I'll repair it later, but Shadow's been putting an illusion over it whenever we leave the room."

"You drove off Leviathan?" He asked, nodding slowly and turning back to Shadow, who was sitting in a chair with her tails around her paws.

"Yeah. Boosted with Calm Mind, and I got pretty lucky with my Charge- picked the right one pretty much by accident, and there was a _lot_ of charge in it- _and_ not much drifted into the rain. He got hit by something about twice the strength I'd expected." Shadow winced a little. "Luckily I'd compressed it as much as I could, so it didn't scatter too much. Still don't think Lung appreciated it, and I think we're lucky that Alexandria's so invincible, but most the power went straight into Leviathan."

"You hit Lung?"

"Only a little bit. He was pinning him down; I got Amy to send a message to Dragon, and Dragon gave the warning for everyone who isn't enough of a Brute to take a lightning strike to back away, and for the ones that could and the Blasters to keep him pinned." She chuckled. "Lung took that pretty literally, he was holding him down as much as he could. He dropped by after he finished ramping down again."

"It was ok?"

"He was fine, he just wanted to compliment me on the power of my attack." Shadow waved off.

Eon shook his head slightly, feeling like he was playing a massive game of catch-up. _I hate when I get knocked out and my team ends up doing ridiculous things without me... Arceus, it's like Trikani Meadow all over again._ With a sigh, he closed his eyes and leaned back again. "Alright, I'm going to need a full review of this, aren't I."

"Later, Eon." Shadow admonished. "You need to rest. Persim berries help with the confusion from overboosting, but the only thing that's gonna fix your brain is rest."

Grumbling good-naturedly about overbearing team healers, Eon stifled a yawn and relaxed.

"Would you mind telling me more stories, Shadow?" Swarm asked.

"Umm... sure, but I _think_ I might be out of myths and legends... at least, ones that have some kind of backing in the real world." She hummed, tapping a paw. "I could tell you some of the ones we've heard from migrating birds, I guess. Not sure how true those are, or if I'll get them right, but I can have a go at it."

"Sure."

"Alright..." As Eon started to drift off again, he heard Shadow start talking about one of the more recently-heard legends, one about a Lucario, and a man called Sir Aaron...

* * *

Lung sat down carefully behind his desk, looking around appreciatively. The building was reasonably undamaged, considering that there had been an Endbringer in the city causing tsunamis, but it was quite far away from the main area where the Island-Sinker had been rampaging, so perhaps it wasn't that much of a surprise.

"Go." He commanded Lee, who was standing in the doorway. "Check on our warehouses, as many as you can. Do not start any fights."

"I will, Lung-sama." Lee nodded, before dissolving into ash. Now alone, Lung leaned back in his seat to think.

The recent battle against Leviathan had been an interesting one, and not only because it was likely to go down in history as the shortest Endbringer battle against the ocean beast. The first major bit of surprise was the _Kyuubi_ , Eon, near the very beginning.

Before he'd headed into the rout to try and ramp up enough to be useful, he'd spent his time watching the team of Inari. Swarm had been pulled down by the teleport outside, landing on one of Eon's tails from what he'd seen, but all three of them had recovered well from the unexpected jolt. Indeed, Eon and Shadow had recovered so well that it made him suspicious of whether they had practise at dealing with unexpected movement. Nevertheless, Eon had quickly moved to check on his two team mates, making sure they were alright, before sending Shadow off with Panacea and her sister to go healing.

He and Swarm had stayed behind, Eon firing a beam of fire at the water echo of Leviathan as the battle began, at which point Lung had lost track of them both in the frantic nature of the battle. The next time he'd seen Eon, the silver _Kyuubi_ had been alone, catching him after a mistimed swipe at Leviathan had sent him flying.

And then the second oddity had come to light.

Absently touching his side, he remembered the feeling of Eon's claws digging into his scales, a slight but sharp pain that made him wince.

Somehow, the noble being had the ability to injure him even as he ramped up, and was perfectly capable of matching him in straight combat- as the mock battle against him showed. Knowing that, his power seemed to transform him quicker than ever before, taking barely fifteen minutes to bring him up to the size he had been when he fought Leviathan at Kyushu, and burning with a flame hotter than he'd used since that day. The next five or so minutes had been spent in close combat with the Endbringer, allowing the rest of the Capes to back away and recover while he burned away the water echo and tore wounds at the beast bellow.

It had only been when he'd heard the quiet sound of the armband chiming, a tone he knew well, and seen the wave beginning to build on the edge of the horizon, that he'd left the Endbringer he'd thrown away to his own devises, stifled his flames, and headed for the silver _Kyuubi_ to offer his aid in getting the Capes that were near out of the wave.

Seeing Eon fire _ice_ from his muzzle had surprised him, given that he seemed to specialise in fire, but knowing that kitsune were tricky creatures he had brushed it aside, assuming that the being had merely been withholding some of his power for the sake of the rest of the world.

Especially as it was nothing to the surprise that followed the _Kyuubi_ 's movement to his free hand, with the shouted command to _throw him_.

Lung snorted at the memory. "For any being to wish to be thrown at an Endbringer, even a _Kyuubi_... ridiculous."

 _Though it certainly worked._ He mused internally. _Turning all nine of his tails to metal and smashing them against his head... Leviathan will be feeling that for some time, I am sure._

Unfortunately it had come at the cost of Eon being flung away and knocked out, but the Endbringer had withdrawn the water from the wave, allowing him to place the Capes he was holding to be placed back on the ground so that he could rejoin the combat.

Not that it had lasted long.

This time, the only warning anyone had had was the voice of Dragon sounding over the armbands, warning any Cape who didn't feel confident taking a powerful lightning strike to back away, and those that could to try and hold Leviathan in one place. Lung had guessed that it was something else to do with Inari, and so he had gone forward and done his best to pin Leviathan to the ground, leaving him struggling in his arms and giving the attacker a clear shot.

The feminine voice, despite being far louder than normal- echoing above everything, even the roar of water from Leviathan as it tried to drown him into letting him go- had surprised him, but not anywhere near as much as the large lightning bolt, almost white, that had lanced down from the sky for the briefest second before impacting.

Wincing again, Lung rubbed his side in remembered pain, the slight tingling from the electrical shock still there despite everything, and a shallow fragment of the true _pain_ he had felt upon the hit. He was fairly sure he had heard even Alexandria shout, though that was more from surprise than pain, he knew. A second later, though, and it had been over, Leviathan darting from his loosened grasp and retreating to the ocean with all of the water behind him.

It'd taken a few moments to blink the spots out of his eyes, at which point he'd looked up to see a Cape with blue wings steadily dropping back towards the medical centre, with a familiar brown-red spot in their arms, and chuckled.

Now, though, he merely frowned, curious. _Shadow was put onto healing, and not into combat. She said she was good, but I did not realise she was that good. I would expect that sort of power from the_ Kyuubi _, but not from a six-tails. Admittedly, she said she had no idea how much would work on Leviathan, but then why would she be willing to come out into the battle instead of healing when she was doing so well...?_

Humming to himself, he rubbed his side again, thinking back to the short conversation they had had in the medical room during a quiet moment, after he'd finished ramping down.

 _Lung walked into the medical bay, holding back a twitch as he looked around._

" _Hello, Lung." Panacea greeted neutrally, coming over to him. In the background, a number of PRT troopers were lifting a Cape into a side room. "What brings you here?"_

" _I was looking for the little kitsune." He rumbled. "Shadow."_

" _She's just next door." The teen told him. "She'll probably be out in a moment, she's just finished a heal and I think she's due another top up on her powers, or whatever it is she's actually doing when she takes a break. I can go get her for you, if you want."_

" _There is no need." He shook his head, turning towards the door she'd indicated. "I will wait for her here."_

 _He'd only waited a moment before the young kitsune walked out, originally heading for a bag sitting on one side before she'd noticed him and changed her course._

" _Greetings, dragon." Shadow said softly, giving a low half-bow before settling into a relaxed but ready stance. "What can I do for you?"_

" _I merely wished to compliment you on your addition to the battle." He replied, inclining his head. "It was a powerful finishing blow, and I am glad for that. I have no wish for any more lands to go the way of Kyushu or Newfoundland." Shadow lowered her head again, scuffing the floor with a paw._

" _It was a pleasure to be of help." She murmured. "It took a lot of power, but I think I'd pay just about any price to get rid of something like that. It's an offense to powerful beings, and to hydrokinetics." She looked up again at him, and he carefully crushed the smirk that was threatening to appear. "Are you alright, by the way? I know you were right next to Leviathan, and that Thunder was actually a bit more powerful than I'd expected. You have a regen normally, right?"_

" _I do." He nodded, absently touching his side where the bolt had screamed past. "And for the most part, I am well."_

" _That's good. Would you have a problem if I healed you anyway, just in case? I wouldn't want something getting stuck by accident, and it was a lot of electricity. I… might've overpowered that too much."_

 _Lung stared at her for a moment-_ More powerful than she expected? _\- and knelt down, offering a hand to her. "You may make sure, if you wish."_

" _Alright, just a second then…" She placed her paw on his palm, closed her eyes, and barked sharply once. A rush of energy flowed through him, and the slight numbness in his side faded away, as did the twitching feeling of the shock in his muscles._

" _Thank you."_

" _No problem, it's my own fault you were hurt by it, since I used it." Shadow shrugged, removing her paw. Her ears twitched slightly and she turned around to look over to the door she came out of, as a trooper stuck his head around the edge and beckoned to her. "Oh, I'm needed again. If that's all…?"_

" _It is." Lung bowed slightly to her, and she returned it. "Give my thanks to_ Kyuubi _Eon when he recovers."_

" _I will."_

Lung shook his head. "There is no way to know for certain what they planned, without asking." He decided, reaching for the paper and pen that he always kept on his desk and opening to a clear page. "Perhaps it is time to do so. I may even get answers to some of the other questions I have…"

Carefully focusing on phrasing his missive, not wanting to offend the two kitsune or their team mate, Lung began to write.

* * *

"Ready to go?"

Aquamarina jolted out of her thoughts, wings tinkling as she moved, turning around and looking at the PRT trooper who had approached without her notice.

"I think so." She nodded, glancing back over the city. "I don't think there's anything else I can do here, anyway. Not really enough of a Brute to help with moving the buildings around, and I'm pretty sure we don't have anything more to do in search and rescue."

"Strider's coming back in a minute, and it's the LA group next." He told her. "So if you're going, might want to get set."

"Thanks." The trooper walked away, leaving her to her thoughts again as she stared back over the area.

This being the first Endbringer attack she'd ever personally been to, she didn't really have anything to compare it to, but she'd seen the pictures of the aftermath of a number of them, and she'd been to Canada once with her parents when she was younger and seen the devastation that had been left behind by Leviathan's attack on Newfoundland, even half a decade later.

To be able to look out over the city and see that, for the most part, it had been pretty untouched by the raging battle was incredible. Of course, there was lingering damage from the sole tsunami that had come in, and a number of places where attacks thrown about by the swarm of Capes on the field had missed and landed elsewhere, but aside from the obvious wreckage that made up the main ' _arena'_ of the battle, Brockton Bay had managed to escape fairly unscathed.

And most of that seemed to be because of Shadow and Eon, and the fact that they were powerful enough to take on the Leviathan practically on their own, leading to the Endbringer being driven away in record time. Between them, they'd probably dealt more damage to the monster than had ever happened before, certainly enough that he felt that it was better to retreat than continue his rampage of destruction and death.

Speaking of death, though they didn't yet have completely accurate results- there were bound to be some more bodies in the rubble somewhere, in the end, and even so the death tolls weren't released for about a week or so after the attack- Aquamarina was pretty sure that this attack also had the lowest casualties of any, save the times where countries refused outside help in dealing with the attack.

The Simurgh didn't count, in her opinion. Mastering people wasn't killing them, and she seemed to do a lot more of that than the killing.

And, once again, that was likely due to Shadow's help in healing the number of lesser injured people, freeing up Amy to deal with the more seriously wounded, saving a number of the Capes that would've no doubt died if they'd had to wait for healing.

 _Those two saved a lot of lives, I'm sure._ Aquamarina mused. _Actually, make that three, given Swarm._ A girl with insect control didn't seem like they would be the most effective at search and rescue when there was heavy rain and rivers everywhere, but somehow she'd managed to figure out a way around that weakness and still manage to do quite well at finding people who were injured. _Team Inari, powerhouses of the attack,_ she chuckled to herself, before hearing the slight sound of Strider teleporting and turning around.

"Folks for LA?" He asked about, making a few others glance up. Aquamarina recognised them as mostly being LA Protectorate members, plus the twin villains that she occasionally clashed with when she went on patrols downtown. Despite the fact that they were normally enemies, she still offered them a nod of greeting which they returned.

The slight disorientation of Strider's teleport followed a moment later, when he was sure that no-one else was coming to join them, and Aquamarina shuffled her wings behind her to keep her balance. The room they landed in was quiet for a minute as Strider left again, before the two villains made their excuses and hurried away. She decided to follow their lead on that, making her way out of the room and through the corridors to the clearly marked out exit, taking to the air as soon as she could.

Using the more offensive part of her power, she did her best to silence the crystals in her wings as she made her way down into an alleyway, criss-crossing across the various paths as she did to make sure people lost track of her.

Triggering her Changer ability, Aquamarina waited in a dark corner for a few seconds to let her wings vanish back into her skin, wincing a little as they did, then pulled off the domino mask she was wearing and sighed.

"God, that was exhausting." She grumbled, rubbing her eyes with her free hand. "I just want to sleep for a week… ah crap, I still have dinner with my parents tonight, don't I." She shook her head, looking around. _Nearly back home, though. Back to the apartment, shower, set an alarm and take a nap._ She decided quickly, making her way out of the alley carefully. She'd chosen her apartment to be in a quiet part of the city, making it a lot easier to sneak in and out during the day if she was in costume, which was helpful now as she slipped down a side road and into the practically abandoned building. The downstairs was empty, as usual for that time of day, so she made her way to the elevator and went up to the second floor.

Pulling the spare key from under the rug, she unlocked the door and hurried inside, mentally making a note to return the key to its spot when she left to see her parents.

A half an hour later, she was drifting off to sleep with her phone on one side, trying to figure out exactly _what_ about the attack she could tell her parents…

* * *

Eon grumbled quietly as he accepted the plate Swarm handed to him. Next to him, another plate was placed down as Shadow made a leap up to the bed she'd claimed in the medical room, taking hers back a second later, while Swarm sat down and pulled up her mask to allow her to eat.

The world was no longer spinning, which was nice, but it was more than a little annoying that his two team mates were babying him so much.

Then again, he had been thrown head-first into a wall after using most of his energy in attempting a move he'd never used and only knew the theory of…

Maybe they were right to be fussing a little.

"What time is it right now?" He asked, pushing his mental grumblings away and lifting the plate over to him. At least there was bacon.

"It's just after half two." Swarm replied, starting on her own plate and looking at him through the orange-tinted goggles. "The attack's been over for about nine hours now, it's probably the shortest one on record to have this little damage, and most of the Capes that came in from other cities and countries seem to have left for home. Pretty sure all these emergency building's are gonna be taken down soon, but the den's bound to be fine and my house looks like it is too, though the water's probably not going to work for a while because of Leviathan."

"I interviewed Amy a bit on what to expect, she said that there's probably going to be a lot of emergency stuff set up in the city for the people that lost their homes in the attack, and there's also bound to be a few people doing stupid things and needing healing, like drinking water that's not properly purified or getting into fights because they're angry, so I might end up heading into the hospital and seeing what I can do for them." Shadow added. "Though Amy said she'll do her best to keep up with that, since we might be busy."

"Busy?" Eon cut in, cocking his head. "Busy doing what?"

"That's a good question." Swarm agreed, looking down at the smaller fox.

"Oh, I never did say, did I?" Shadow blinked, blushing slightly. "Well, Swarm, you remember a couple of hours ago when Vicky and Amy came over to grab me for something?"

"Yeah…?"

"Well, basically, Amy had had the idea that maybe my Heal Bell could cure Master effects, since I'd mentioned it works on mental statuses." She explained. "I meant the Confused status, and I guess in some ways Sleep counts as one as well, but I guess Amy took it to mean mental Masters, and she wanted to test it. Lady Photon said she would get into contact with the PRT on my behalf once things have died down a bit, to see if they have access to a mental Master that we could use to test it on, or if they can help us get some victims for the same test."

There was silence. In the back of his mind, Eon fancied he could hear Kricketot.

"Swarm, where'd you get the crickets from?"

"Found them." The bug-user grinned shamelessly, putting the two crickets on the floor and making them run off.

"Alright then." Shadow looked at her team mate for a moment longer, then rolled her eyes. "Anyway, Lady Photon said that she wasn't sure how long it'd take to get things set up for me, but she'd send a message through Amy the next time we had a shift together to confirm it. Then it'd be up to us to do the rest with the PRT and Protectorate."

"That's… great." Eon tried, still thinking about it. "Really great, actually."

"Yeah, no-one's figured out a way to break Master effects on people without finding a way of getting the Master in question to reverse it, and when it comes to villains that's pretty hard." Swarm said, running a hand down Shadow's back. "Having access to the only person in the world- minus something we haven't heard of yet- that can break them…"

"That's a lot of power in one Pokemon's paws." Eon finished, blinking and shaking himself from his mind. "One heck of a lot."

"I'll be careful, Eon." Shadow rolled her eyes again at her leader. "I'm not stupid, I know that that gives Inari a lot of potential power with the Capes around here. I'll be careful with it."

"Good."

The three settled into companionable quiet for a little while, going back to eating, before Swarm paused.

"Hey, if your power can disrupt mental Master effects, why doesn't it do anything to me?"

"I don't know." Shadow admitted. "I figured that maybe it only works on certain types. Or maybe it's the Badge rule."

"Badge rule?"

"It's the nickname a lot of people back home use to talk about Move interactions." The Vulpix told her. "Some Moves are area of effect, focused on a room, like my Heal Pulse or Heal Bell, but they only affect people on my team, and they don't do anything to the dungeon Pokemon. It's the same with Moves that damage an entire room of Pokemon, too; they won't hurt anyone with a badge. No-one actually knows why, but as long as you're considering the other team a friendly one, nothing you do would hurt them, and vice versa. I wouldn't think that it'd work here, given that we're not in a dungeon, but I guess it's counting anyway?" She shrugged.

"Have I mentioned that your world is weird?" Swarm checked.

"You have, yeah." Shadow laughed. "And yeah, it is, we know. But anyway, if my power really does work on Master effects, even only certain types, it'll be really helpful to people."

Again they lapsed into silence, thinking about the recent events, until they all finished eating and Swarm collected the plates, offering to take them back. Shadow stayed in her seat, watching her leave, then turned to look at Eon.

"What actually happened with Leviathan, Eon?" She asked softly.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked in return, cocking his head slightly.

"I _know_ you, Eon." Shadow sighed. "We've been in a team for more than a year and a half now, we've been in a lot of scraps, and I've seen you take hits larger than nine simultaneous Iron Tails to a practically immovable surface. I know how you work; if you weren't expecting to hit Leviathan with that Iron Tail, you would've had something else ready and waiting to hit him with; heck, normally you would've had something ready anyway as a follow-up attack, or would've been ready with something weaker to use the second you were in close. Even overboosted to the point you were at, and exhausted as much as you were, I _know_ you would've had that ready." The second-in-command of Inari straightened and stared him in the eye. "What actually _happened_ there, that made you stop for long enough to get grabbed by him?"

Eon held her demanding gaze for a few moments, thinking, then blinked and shook his head. "You're right about something else happening, little pix." He admitted lowly. "I got a Dimensional Scream when I hit him."

Shadow's eyes widened. "Another one?" Her voice dropped to near-nothing as well, and he strained to hear it. "What did you see?"

Dimensional Screams were weird situations for both of them. It happened with no apparent pattern, the only indication that either of them got was the sudden feeling of dizziness from Eon, and the number of times it'd caused trouble for them was pretty high given the rarity. They'd only ever met one Pokemon that could do it, and it was from them that Inari had gotten most of their information on them in the first place. Most the time, though, Shadow had found herself covering for Eon when the Scream occurred- like back with Tattletale, or Taylor.

"Past, I would think, but I don't really know." Eon shrugged, two tails winding around each other. "I don't know enough about Leviathan's attacks to make a guess… he was sinking islands, or an island, I'm not sure, but that was just to distract the Capes. He was hunting something under the water… a city covered by a shield, it made it invisible, but because it was in the water he could sense it. Leviathan used the water and the debris to smash the shield in, and break down the city into rubble. There were crystals in it, and some kind of oval thing, he thought it was just rubble but I don't think so."

"Why would Leviathan attack an underwater city?" Shadow murmured, her own tails twirling. "Was there something there he wanted, or was it just in the way?"

Eon frowned, trying to recall as much of that slowly-fading vision as he could. "I… don't think so. About it being in the way, that is. I think he had a reason for attacking that place."

" _Why?_ " She asked the air. "If it was our world with this stuff, I can think of about a dozen reasons why he'd want to hunt down undersea cities; the Whirl Islands Lugia nest, the Shamouti border shrine, the Murky Ocean temple to Kyogre, the Temple of the Sea that belonged to the People of the Water, the Surrounded and Miracle Sea's, Crystal Waterfall, though that's more related to Suicune and I guess it's not _really_ underwater, behind a waterfall and all…" Shadow shook her head to clear it, tapping a paw. "Momma probably knows more than that, and Gram even more, they're proper Talekeepers after all-"

"You're a perfectly good one as well, Shadow. Leaving to start a Rescue Team doesn't change that, and with how long your kind live you'll have plenty of time to catch up once rescuing gets boring for you."

"Our kind, Eon." Shadow reminded him, smiling slightly at his little pep talk even so. "But yeah, I know. Still wish I'd taken the time to learn more, might've helped us in some of the dungeons… but yeah, I don't suppose that's relevant here, they're all Pokemon stories after all. Maybe Swarm knows some human ones that might be related."

"We'll wait for her to get back and ask her."

"Ask me what?" Both Pokemon startled, twisting in midair towards the door to see Swarm had entered without them noticing, and was now closing it behind her and going back to the seat she'd claimed. "What's wrong, you two?"

"Long story, probably better waiting until we can head back to the Den before we tell you all of it, Swarm, but we were wondering what sort of stories your world has about underwater cities?" Shadow asked her, tails curving around her paws.

"Underwater cities?" She repeated, sounding confused. "Off the top of my head, only the one. Atlantis, a city that apparently sank under the ocean. There's probably more- _definitely_ more, but I don't really know them. We could look them up, if we can find a place we can get internet from that's _not_ the crap at my house."

"Atlantis…" Eon mused aloud, testing the word.

"That reminds me of one of the other human stories, though I don't think that one sank. Pretty sure Ho-oh burned it, though maybe that was the other one." Swarm and Eon both looked at her with raised eyebrows, and she blushed. "I went through an ocean faze as a kit, ok? Momma and Gram told me loads of stories about places like that."

"Of course you did." He chuckled. "Thanks, Swarm, that gives at least one likely option."

"No problem, but now I want to get back to the Den so you two tell me what the hell's going on." Swarm snarked back.

"It's two thirty-five, so sleep for a bit longer, then you'll probably be recovered enough for us to make our farewells and vanish back home." Shadow recommended. "Swarm and I might leave you on your own for a while to go take a look-see around, maybe see if they're letting people out of the shelters yet."

"They should be, from what I've heard in the past." Swarm put in. "They don't normally keep people in there for that long, and this Leviathan attack's been pretty light in terms of damage, so they'll want people out and back to doing things as soon as they can."

"Then we'll go and see if we can find your dad anywhere, and I can take the both of us back to your house invisibly. Depending on how your house is, you two can stay there or we can try to figure something else out with the Den." Shadow offered. "It wouldn't be too hard to expand out the camping area a bit, even if it's just me working on it, and you and Danny could just bring some stuff from your house to sleep over until things are better."

"That'd be nice."

"Then off you go, you two. I'll be fine here on my own, just don't leave it too late, ok?" The team leader said. Both females nodded and stood from their seats, Swarm offering her arms to Shadow as they left. Eon shifted on the bed, lowering himself onto his stomach before curling up slightly, resting his head on his tails and paws, and let himself drift back off to sleep.

* * *

 **AN: Hi, sorry this is a bit late, stuff happened. I've also officially run out of buffer, so if I don't upload for a while, that's why; school's been kicking my ass a bit, I have five chapters of a novel to write for the end of the week as part of a project, and there's a lot of other stuff going on as well. I'll do my best to stay consistent, though.**


	21. Chapter 18

**A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 18.**

 **Recovery, letter, and organising.**

* * *

"See anything, Swarm?" Shadow asked, sitting on the ground. Her team mate was standing next to her, head slightly cocked to the side as if she was listening for something, and glanced down when she spoke.

"Not yet." She replied. "I can see people coming out of the shelters now, but no sign of him yet."

"You know where he went, right?"

"I'm pretty sure. There's only so many shelters, and I think I know which one's closest to home, but I'm giving as many of them as I can a look over just in case." Swarm told her, going back to her search. "I think we'll need to move on, though. I can't see him anywhere at all."

"Moving on it is, then." Shadow nodded, letting Swarm pick her up again. "How many of these shelters are there, anyway?"

"There's… about four, I think?" She guessed. "I'm not completely certain. I think there was supposed to be a fifth built as well, but for some reason it never got finished."

"Not enough money, maybe?"

"Might be." Swarm sighed. "That's been a problem for this city for a long time, to be honest, and it's horrible. Would explain why no-one seems to know where it was, aside from ' _somewhere Downtown'_ , though I think the city probably still has access to the plans. We could look them up, if you cared enough."

"Eh, it's unfinished, so there's no point. No-one's going to be there, so it'll be completely useless to go there ourselves." Shadow looked up at her with a large grin. "Unless it's suddenly turned into a Mystery Dungeon, that is. _Then_ it'd be worth looking into." Swarm laughed loudly.

"I somehow doubt that the abandoned, unfinished Endbringer shelter in the middle of the highly populated area is anything important, Shadow, let alone a Mystery Dungeon." Swarm said dryly. "I think we'd've noticed a ton of Pokemon pouring out of it if it was."

"Pokemon don't actually tend to _leave_ the dungeons, y'know. For some reason. Some do, admittedly, but they don't normally go far if they do as well."

"Still would've noticed Pokemon leaving in that case." Swarm retorted. "After all, there's bound to be at least a few that would roam, right?"

"Odds… aren't against it, I guess." She agreed. "It'd depend on how big the dungeon inside was, and how many different types of Pokemon were appearing there, but there's always a chance that it could happen."

"Maybe I could poke about in there with my bugs, if we ever find the place."

"Some people think that dungeons are spatially… or dimensionally, or temporally, or something like that… unlinked." Shadow commented. "So if it _was_ a Mystery Dungeon, it's possible that you wouldn't be able to sense your bugs in there unless you were also in there." The bug user paused.

"Have I mentioned that your world is weird?" Swarm said plaintively, making Shadow giggle.

"You have, yes." Sniffing at the air a few times, she suddenly sneezed, blinking. "Huh. I think I might've just smelled your dad."

"Seriously?" Swarm looked down sharply at her.

"Ye-es…?" She hummed back, sniffing again. "Gah, everything's still covered in water smells… but I think he's over that way." She pointed, making Swarm change direction and start searching with her bugs. "Hey, isn't that about the right way to be going to your home?" Swarm shrugged.

"Might be? I haven't found him yet."

"If he's going home, we could cloak and wait for him there instead." Shadow suggested.

"Can you hold a cloak on both of us for that long?"

"I… I think so, yeah." She nodded. "It'll be difficult, I think, because if I have where _we_ are right then it'll be kinda a long distance, but I think it's possible. Actually, it's more than possible, I've done longer than this before I think."

"Then go ahead and cloak us both, and I'll be sure to get us back home quickly." Swarm promised, turning her head to glance around, while also checking out the area with her bugs. "I recognise this place, I think, so I can get back fast."

"Alright, get ready." The Vulpix closed her eyes, tails waving back and forth a few times, then said, "We're cloaked. Go ahead, just try and stay quiet. It's harder to cloak more sound."

"On it." Swarm whispered, immediately making her way through the empty streets towards her house. Despite the practise she'd had at silencing her steps- something the Cape had decided to learn almost the second she found out just how hard it was for her team mates to cloak louder noises, and had gotten _very_ good during the intervening time- every movement sounded unnaturally loud in the dead silence that made up the city. There should've been people there, shopping, playing, living, but instead there's nothing.

Shadow didn't like that, she decided to herself, still focused on holding the cloak.

Luckily, it didn't take long at all for them to reach the house, easily slipping inside with the spare key that had been hidden outside for situations similar to this one, and drop the cloak.

"Are you alright, Shadow?" Taylor asked, pulling off her mask and shaking her head.

"I'm fine." She yawned back, blinking herself back into wakefulness. Taylor quickly put her back on the floor, and she tottered a bit before finding her balance again. "Bit stressful, but no more than usual, at least."

"That's good. Will you be alright to do it again going to the Den?"

"Should be. Might need a bit of a rest, but I can probably manage to take you both back there."

"You rest, then. I'll check the water first, see if it's any good, then we'll decide whether or not we need to go back to the Den." Taylor decided, leaving Shadow standing on the dining room floor and walking around going into the kitchen area, where she immediately turned on the tap. "Oh."

"Oh?" Shadow padded around the corner and looked up, then spotted the black water coming from the tap in splutters. "Oh."

"Yeah, that's not a great sign, really." Taylor sighed, turning off the tap, then started towards the staircase. Shadow followed part of the way, then stretched out in the doorway of the front room instead, listening to what was going on upstairs. She heard Taylor turn on a few more taps, followed by a few soft curses that Shadow took to mean that the water upstairs was just as blackened as it was down. "I think we'll need to be coming to the Den, maybe."

"If it's just the water, does it matter too much?" Shadow called back. "You'd have to remember not to put anything in the washer or under the sink, but you'd be fine otherwise, right?"

"The shower's also gonna be out." Taylor reminded, making her way back down the stairs. "Though that's probably going to end up being a thing in most of the city for the next few days, at least until they get round to fixing things."

"Maybe we should wait for your dad to get back first, so we can ask him what to do."

"Makes sense." She nodded, heading into the kitchen and sitting down, making Shadow get up to follow her. "What do you think we should do?"

"I'd think… stay." Shadow hummed. "Of course, we wouldn't have a lot of the problems you guys would, with showers not working and stuff, we'd just use the river or pond, or even the rain if we had to… heck, even Water moves. And there'd probably be a Suicune around to fix the water if something happened. But Eon and I would probably stay in the Den."

"Don't suppose you know any Water moves, then, do you?" Taylor tried. Shadow opened her mouth to reply, then paused, head cocked.

"I… don't think so. There's a Vaporeon in my family tree, I think… Pa's side of the tree, going back… four generations, maybe?" She mused. "So I suppose it's always _possible_ that there's a Water Move in there somewhere, but even then I wouldn't be able to use it. You kinda need to be taught to use them, even if the Move's in your lineage, and I've never been taught."

"Well damn." Taylor sighed. "I guess we'll just wait for Dad, then."

"Probably the best idea anyway. Even if he does end up saying to move to the Den, he's your dad, and should have input on things to do with your safety."

"I know, Shadow." Both girls settled into silence, listening out with their different senses for Danny to arrive at the house.

* * *

Lung looked carefully over the missive, checking it over for anything that could possibly be construed as an insult or a challenge, before finally nodding slowly. It had taken some time to get it right- or at least _reasonable_ \- and the pile of paper in the basket at his side attested to that. Then again, given that he was dealing with kitsune, it was quite possible that he'd never manage to get the message right enough. In a way, any request could be taken as a challenge, with some very _creative_ interpretation… but that was what kitsune did best.

Deciding he just needed to bite the figurative bullet and hope for the best, Lung sealed the missive in an envelope, melted a little wax over the fold, and pressed a seal onto it.

He was dealing with kitsune, so formal would be the way to go.

Now, to wait for Lee to return from his inventory of the warehouses, or give it to the next grunt he saw with instructions to go to the neutral camp and search for Eon or Shadow?

Wait for Lee, he decided. It would look better if his nominal second-in-command went with the request, rather than sending a random grunt to do it. _That_ could be taken as an insult to them, like he was claiming that they weren't important enough in his mind to bother sending someone powerful to meet them. Preferably, Lee would also find Shadow, rather than going to Eon, since it would be two seconds meeting as equals, not putting one of their sides on a back foot by being less important.

Leaving the sealed envelope on one side of the desk, Lung rested his head in his hands and groaned. _Now_ he remembered why he'd always hated the formality lessons he'd taken as a child. All it ever ended up in was headaches and paranoia from second-guessing your own decisions in an attempt not to offend…

* * *

Amy walked alongside the PRT officer, her sister hovering just behind her, as the trooper walked her into the main medical tent.

"Eon's still in there." The trooper told her, holding the door of the tent open for the two girls. "Swarm and Shadow were seen leaving about an hour ago, talking, and Shadow didn't have her little bag with her. Presumably she left it in here with Eon. No idea if they've come back yet, though."

"That's ok, I just want to check on him." Amy assured. "Shadow would've done her own check on him, I'm sure, but she doesn't have the sort of in depth read I can get."

"Plus Shadow likes you, so she won't get mad." Vicky added. Amy rolled her eyes, and the trooper chuckled.

"Be quiet, Vicky." The healer retorted, before knocking softly on the door. When no-one responded, she pushed open the door and headed in, her sister floating close behind while the trooper peeled off to go and do something else.

"Looks like they're still out." Vicky observed obviously, lifting slightly to see over her head. She immediately had to duck to avoid the edge of the door, making Amy roll her eyes again and head straight for the silvery-grey vulpine on the bed.

"Good afternoon, Panacea." He said lowly, making her jump. "What brings you here?"

"I- I was just planning on checking on you, making sure you were healing ok." She replied, nervous. "Sorry, I thought you were asleep."

"I was, a little." Eon yawned widely, lifting his head from his paws. "Shadow insisted I rest more. It's best to listen to her when she says that; she has the horrible tendency to use Hypnosis on you if you refuse to rest and heal."

Vicky laughed. "That sounds like experience talking." Eon chuckled as well.

"Only the once. We normally learn our lesson after that, waking from Hypnosis is rather more disorientating than waking up on your own." He grinned at her, flexing his neck and shifting his tails. "I feel alright though, Panacea. I believe you did the healing, yes?"

"Yeah, it was my work." She nodded. "Shadow probably could've done it too, but her ability seems to sometimes work poorly when there's too much to do, and she was a little too worried for me to want to trust her with something tricky."

"That's fair enough." He agreed. He pushed himself up properly and offered a paw to her, which Amy took.

"You're definitely recovering alright." Amy nodded, after a moment examining the vulpine. "Everything looks fine, at least."

"And I feel fine, like I said." Eon chuckled. "There's still a bit of a headache, which'll go away pretty quickly. It's just the result of overboosting, my brain needs time to cool down."

"Sounds like a Thinker power." Vicky commented, from the side of the room, leaning half-way up the wall.

"In a way, I guess they are." He nodded. "Boosting adds to my powers; better ranged and melee abilities, more defences, better accuracy with my ranged attacks, things like that. Might be more of a Trump, put that way, but from what I've heard, the headaches are a Thinker staple."

"Normally, yeah." Amy said, taking her hand from Eon's paw. "But you look like you're doing ok, so I don't really think you need to be here anymore, aside from waiting for Swarm and Shadow to get back."

"I don't actually expect them to be coming back, at least not today. I sent them off on a task, so she might drop by to get her bag, but I can take that back to the Den alright and leave you the room again." Eon replied.

"You're probably good to stay a little while longer, the PRT won't need these taken down for a little while yet, and given what you and Shadow did in the fight they're probably willing to make an exception for the two of you if you need it." The healer told him. "But if you want to go you can, and I can see about finding someone to tell Swarm and Shadow where you are."

"I can go out and find them in the city for you." Vicky volunteered. Eon shook his head.

"Thanks, Glory Girl, but no need. They'll be in one of two places, so I can check one and go to the other." He promised. "Besides, I'm sure you have better things to do than search around the city for a pair of Capes."

"Eh, not really." She shrugged. "Most of everything's done now, for Capes; no more search-and-rescue, moving debris around can be done by normal people with machines, and to be honest I think the city is gonna want to leave rebuilding for a little while, while everything else gets sorted."

Eon tilted his head slightly, seeming confused, so Amy stepped in, "Normally the cities like to make sure that all the Capes from other cities are back where they should be and the emergency shelters are all set up, then they start calling in companies which help with rebuilding. Normally I think priorities are fresh water, fixing the water supplies and that, and making sure anyone affected has temporary housing before they rebuild- that way they don't miss things." She explained, then shrugged. "Though given how little damage happened this attack compared to most, things are gonna end up getting kicked up a bit, I think."

"I see." Eon nodded. "I'll have to see if there's any way Shadow and I can help with rebuilding. Swarm might not be able to do much, but the two of us can lift things around."

"The city's most likely to use companies from inside the city where they can, just for the sake of saving a bit of money." Amy said. "But you'll probably find a few people that're willing to get some help from Capes."

"It's after an Endbringer attack, after all. People always want stuff sorted before the next one happens." Vicky added. Eon pursed his lips slightly, a few tails curling around each other.

"I see. I'll have to see what we can do, then."

"You could probably get requests to help if you just posted about it on PHO." She told him. "It can be a surprise to see how much stuff comes from there. Basically everyone uses it, after all."

"I might just do that." Eon smiled. "Thank you, Panacea."

"Always happy to help." She stepped away, while Vicky pushed off the wall to come float next to her. "Anyway, that's all I wanted to do. You can probably leave if you want, I don't really see a reason for you to need to stay and recover. If it's just sleep you can do that well enough in your base, I guess."

"Most likely." Eon carefully jumped down from the bed, shaking himself out once he hit the floor, and a moment later his eyes shimmered blue. Shadow's bag drifted between the two girls, making them blink, and settled next to him. "The Den isn't close to the attack site at all, so it should be fine. I think I will head out, then go find Swarm and Shadow."

"Good luck with that, then." Amy offered her hand to shake, which he did, then shook Vicky's as well. "Hopefully we'll see you around sometime soon. Probably when Aunt Sarah's able to get to the PRT about Shadow's possible anti-Master effect."

"We'll be certain to come along to that meeting with her." Eon told her. "A team should stay together, after all, no matter what." The grey fox wrapped a tail around the bag, lifting it- and making Amy raise an eyebrow, because she didn't think the tails were _that_ flexible- and all three of them went towards the door. "I hope everything else you do goes well." He said, before trotting off. A few seconds later he went around a corner and out of sight, and Amy let Vicky pick her up to carry her back to the rest of the family.

And thought about the fact that that final sentence seemed to carry a _lot_ more weight than a simple farewell…

* * *

Humming slightly to himself as he wandered through the deserted streets, Eon sniffed curiously at the air, looking for the scent of his two team mates. While he didn't need to find them _just_ yet, it would be a helpful starting point in looking for them if he had to. Until then, though, he would be heading for the Den, then to Taylor's house.

Twisting down an alleyway with the plan to cloak himself and leave, he heard a vaguely familiar sound- the slight pop of a teleport- and perked an ear, dropping into the shadows.

He was fairly sure that no-one would be stupid enough to try attacking him in the aftermath of an Endbringer attack, while the truce was in effect, but there were always a lot of stupid people in the world- in either world, for that matter. So he'd be on guard.

The tallish form of Oni Lee made his way into the alley, the demon mask glancing around, and Eon half relaxed. With Lung having given the order to leave Team Inari the hell alone, apparently on the pain of pain, it wasn't likely that this was an attack.

Still…

"Greetings, Oni Lee." Eon rumbled, throwing his voice slightly. While he still hadn't properly learned Shadow's trick to throw her voice, he had it down well enough that he could put it on the other side of the alleyway and slightly up, where some sodden boxes were sitting. "What brings you here?"

"I was looking for you, _Kyuubi_ Eon." He responded, freezing in place. The Parahuman moved one hand towards his pocket, making Eon prepare a flicker of flame in the back of his throat, only to let it fade when he took out a letter, holding it out towards the air with his other hand held up. "Lung-sama commanded me to pass this letter on, either to you or to your second. I saw you coming this way, and followed."

"I see." Eon nodded, forming an illusion to walk out of the shadows on that side. It strolled over to Oni Lee and, with slightly glowing eyes to mask where it was coming from, took the letter in an Extrasensory. "Thank you, then."

The illusion took a half step back, giving Eon the chance to cloak himself and step out of the shadows, breaking the seal on the missive and scanning over it.

With raised eyebrows, the real Eon stepped out of the way again, allowing the illusion to handle the appearance of conversation. "That's a very interesting idea, Oni Lee." It mused. "Tell your leader that I accept." Oni Lee nodded, then turned around, teleporting. His clone faded into ash a few seconds later, and only a few seconds after _that_ , once Eon was vaguely sure that the scent of the Parahuman was far enough away, that he let the illusion vanish away.

He left the shadows with the letter still in his psychic grasp, then brought his tail around to let him put it in Shadow's bag.

"Interesting." He murmured to himself. "Very interesting indeed…"

Quickly making his way down the rest of the alley, then cloaking and ignoring the headache once again forming, Eon started running towards the Den, wanting to get back there as soon as possible so he could talk to Shadow and Swarm about the contents of the letter- whether they were there or at Taylor's house.

* * *

"Here's Dad." Taylor said, spotting him approaching the door with her bugs.

"No-one's with him, right?" Shadow checked, standing and shaking her fur out.

"He's on his own." She confirmed. "No need to cloak anything."

"Good."

Both females heard the front door open, and Taylor quickly called, "Hi dad!"

"Taylor?" He replied, sounding surprised, suddenly appearing in the kitchen. "I'm glad you're alright… what happened to your costume?"

"I got into a bit of trouble during the tsunami." She told him. "Things got a bit wrecked, so I'm gonna need to fix my costume, but I've got some spiders working on it at the minute, I took some of the ones working on my second costume to do it. I got healed fine, though. Panacea made sure of that, after Shadow and her friend found me." Danny nodded, looking away from where he was examining Taylor's costume and down at Shadow, still standing on the floor.

"I see. Thank you, Shadow." He smiled at her, then looked around. "Where's Eon?"

"He _should_ still be in the medical bay, resting." Shadow sighed, scowling lightly. "But I doubt he is. Probably woke up about ten minutes after we left, decided he's rested enough, picked up my bag, and gone for a walk. Most likely to the Den, to see if we went there, and he'll probably leave my bag there too, then he'll come here. If he doesn't find us here, he'll go wandering."

Danny and Taylor both stared at her, and she shrugged. "Eon's done it before, though without too much of the wandering. He basically left the little medical area, went and made food, then went for a short walk while eating the food. One of our other team mates, Gallade, found him and dragged him back." Taylor giggled.

"That does kind of sound like Eon." She snickered. "He doesn't seem like someone who'd want to sit around too much."

"Oh, he does _not_." Shadow laughed. "Not even close. To be fair, I think the main reason is because we have a tendency to do things when he's not around, so he needs to play catch-up on it all the time. Like Trikani Meadow... I kinda feel bad about that one, to be fair."

"Trikani Meadow?" Danny asked, taking a seat and putting an arm around Taylor.

"One of the Mystery Dungeons that we went to, about... a year ago, I think. Man, been a while." Shadow pulled out a chair with Extrasensory and jumped up to the seat, bringing herself more up to level with her team mate and her father. "See, we went there on a request mission to find a lost Pokemon, a Bulbasaur- their mother was worried about them, and wanted a Rescue Team to help out. Eon got knocked down near the end of the Dungeon, though I managed to heal him a little, then we got attack by a Monster House-"

"A Monster House?"

"It's a room type in a Dungeon. It... basically send an alarm through the entire Dungeon that calls all the Dungeon Pokemon over there to attack."

"Sounds like a video game." Danny noted. "Or a D&D game."

"I guess?" Shadow said, sounding confused. "I'll have to check what that is, but that's Dungeon rules where we come from. They're pretty weird. But anyway, we were nearly at the end of the Dungeon- we hadn't managed to find the Bulbasaur, and we were getting close to the end of the Dungeon, which was making Eon a bit nervous..."

* * *

Eon sneezed slightly, then sighed. _Shadow's telling stories again, isn't she. For Arceus's sake, can't she stop for more than a few days? Then again, her family are all Talekeepers. Guess it's expected that she keeps talking._ Flicking his tails, he pawed around the edge of the forest for a moment, then caught himself on the loose end he'd left in the illusion late the night before and folded himself into it.

All of the vague feelings from the defensive illusions vanished completely, and Eon spared a moment to smirk proudly before starting to run to the Den.

The idea of using the Zoroark style illusion keystones- _that's a mouthful and a half,_ he mused, _should think of a better name for that._ \- as a way to support his own invisibility had been something Shadow had come up with, in the hopes of her being able to use it to make her own invisibility illusions more accurate while on the move. Unfortunately for her, the stones didn't work well when being moved around, but it _did_ allow both of them to ' _fold'_ themselves into the illusion, hiding in the already set up fields to give the impression of cloaking when they didn't have to.

 _Maybe someday we'll manage to figure out a way to make them mobile._ Eon hummed to himself. _When we get back, we'll have to collaborate with Zoroark from Team Darkrun about trying to make that work._

Reaching the Den, Eon unfolded himself from the illusion, ignoring the minor feeling of the illusions coming back into focus before fading again, then started searching around.

"Nope, not here." He noted easily. "Swarm's house, then. Might as well head there, then." Taking a moment to pick up a few things- mainly the Wonder Map, sitting in the Treasure Bag inside the Den- and checking on Shadow's garden near the stream, he left her bag inside and began loping towards Taylor's.

* * *

"So what do you plan to do?"

Danny tilted his head slightly, drumming his fingers against the table. At his side was Taylor, still partly in the Cape costume and making flies dance about on the table. Thankfully she'd cleared the bugs out of her hair, sending the spiders upstairs to their boxes. Shadow and Eon were on the other side of the table, Shadow straining slightly to look over the top.

After a few moments of thought, he replied to the larger Pokemon, "I have to admit, I'm not sure. Given the lack of damage to everything over here- compared to what the city and PRT were probably expecting, that is- there's not really much of a need to try finding somewhere else to stay over, but with the water…"

"Yeah, not having access to clean water is a problem." Eon agreed. "If we had the ability to reach back home, we might be able to get a Suicune or something to come and help out- given that Hoopa sent us here, he might be willing to help us contact them for this. But since we're on our own, we need to wait for the locals to get everything together and fix it."

"Do we know how long that'll be?" Shadow asked.

"Whenever there's a Leviathan attack that leaves a lot of water pollution, it's the first priority to get that sorted out." Taylor said. "Because temporary housing is a lot easier to handle dealing with; importing bottled water from other places can get expensive and troubling to distribute around people, especially for the ones that don't manage to get into emergency shelters." All three of them looked at her, and she blushed. "We talked about it in World Issues for a few lessons once. It's one of the one's I remember pretty well."

"Helpful." Eon smiled. "So, we know that one of the first priorities is getting water back, which is good. It's likely that some of the areas of the city are going to get water back sooner, same with power in the places where that was knocked out, but we can at least hope that you'll get it back sooner rather than later. If you don't, there's always the option of moving in to the Den for a few days-"

"I'd rather that was kept as an emergency option, Eon." Danny interrupted. "It'll make it harder for me to get into work, for a start. And while I'm not opposed to camping, it's probably a better idea to stay at the house in case someone decides to come calling around to check on things. Wouldn't be very good if they found us missing."

"True, true." Eon nodded, and Danny could imagine he was thinking of what sort of reaction _he_ would have in that sort of situation.

The PRT or police would probably take it as a reason to arrange for a pair of places on the memorial stone, for a start.

"Right, we'll leave the extended Hebert family camping trip for another day, then. You guys can stay here, obviously. Shadow and I will stay at the Den, but we'll be out all the hours we can manage and offering our help with whatever's going on." The Ninetales flicked his head a little towards the Vulpix. "Taylor, I think you should stay home for a few days. Focus on fixing your costume, and take a break. I don't see anyone needing to patrol for criminals for the next few days anyway, with the Endbringer Truce still in effect." Suddenly Eon's eyes glowed blue, and a letter floated out of the bag on the floor and placed itself on the table. Danny peered over at it, noting the envelope was already opened, and had been sealed with a deep red wax, while Eon continued, "And then there's this."

"What is it, Eon?" Shadow asked, as Taylor took the letter and unfolded it.

Danny read it over her shoulder, both eyes widening.

"Well." The sole Cape in the room mused, as she handed the letter off to her second-in-command. "That _does_ look interesting."

* * *

 **AN: Bouncy chapter, mostly because we've come almost to the end of the arc. Only one more chapter to go before we move on, so this was a bit of tying things up, and a bit of setting things up.**

 **Also, if I die for a few weeks, it's because the buffer's running low and I have a ton of work to do over the summer that I've not finished yet, plus I'm attempting to write chapters on the other stories.**

 **Child of Mew is _not_ going well, to say the least, and Guardians of Power wants to write scenes about a thousand years in the future.**


	22. Chapter 19

**A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 19.**

 **PHO, grief, and deal.**

* * *

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 **Topic: Post-Leviathan Thread**  
 **In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay**  
 **Tin_Mother** (Original Poster) (Moderator)  
Posted On May 16th 2011:

Alright.

Here's your thread, everyone. We know the rules here. I don't care what happened- Leviathan spent the entire time break dancing, the Simurgh showed up and ended the attack herself with a club made out of clouds, God him/her/themselves dropkicked the Endbringer- nothing to do with the attack itself is to be discussed here. Obviously the two week silence is still in effect, and _obviously_ we don't say anything about or speculate on any deaths that may have happened in the attack. This policy is enforced by a week long ban.

And that _really_ shouldn't need to be said anymore.

This thread is not for anything to do with what went on during the actual attack. I don't care who's saying it, it's not happening here, your post will be deleted and you will enjoy a ban.

This thread is for people to comment on the aftermath of the attack, talking about repairs, situations with the local gangs/the PRT/the Protectorate, and for people to mention anything interesting going on with the local Capes.

Please, for the love of everything, keep to the rules this time. I'm seriously beginning to see why the other mods don't like me doing this, but at least it keeps it out of the other threads more.

Also, remember that I won't be editing this post to add things in unless it's really important, because with how quick these threads explode I'd be here all week doing just that.

 **(Showing page 15 of 8562)**

► **Echorealm**  
Replied On May 16th 2011:

At least the water situation seems to be doing ok there, right?

I mean, I know that's one of the first things people try and deal with after Leviathan, and from what I've heard it's been going really well.

► **PoisonedCell**  
Replied On May 16th 2011:

Yeah, water's doing ok, actually. Lot of the city is back already, though you need to spend some time draining them out first. Whatever company they got doing that, we need to figure out ways to send them to other Leviathan zones after the attacks, it's ridiculous.

► **Answer Key**  
Replied On May 16th 2011:

Is it true that there's some Capes over there helping out with the building stuff? If so, that's pretty cool, but all I've heard are rumours, no images at all.

► **LukeLance**  
Replied On May 16th 2011:

Ask and ye shall receive!

Dauntless and Miss Militia, helping move piping around.

Hookwolf helping cut planks to size.

Othala granting some of the builders superstrength to carry stuff.

Glory Girl carrying cement up into a big truck.

►Bagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On May 16th 2011:

Can't believe you missed this one, **LukeLance**.

Lung, with some gang members, carrying around cinder blocks.

► **Helotan**  
Replied On May 16th 2011:

holy crap lung was there too? thats so cool, wonder why he was helping.

► **AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On May 16th 2011:

Probably because he lives here too, **Helotan**! Just about every Cape that can help does, you know.

Then again, it's not just the Capes either, apparently. There's been reports of gang members, ABB and E88, running patrols around the streets looking out for trouble, because the Capes are out of commission for the most part.

Couple of pics here, though I've got nothing on the rumours that there's no fighting between them when they run into each other, nor the ones about them possibly co-operating to keep things calm.

► **Brocktonite03** (Veteran Member)  
Replied On May 16th 2011:

Dang, that's cool. Wish this city was this calm all the time...

Anyway, got a bit of video for you folks, Shadow and Swarm out and about on the same street as Glory Girl. From what I can see Shadow's making things float around, while Swarm was just keeping an eye on things. After a bit though, Shadow went inside and Swarm wandered off with Glory Girl, apparently to get food.

Interesting that GG apparently let Swarm and Shadow both call her by name, though.

► **Antigone**  
Replied On May 16th 2011:

Apparently GG was later seen flying off without either of them, looking pretty thoughtful. Guess they had a talk about something... wonder what?

► **AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On May 16th 2011:

How much fun it is to build stuff like that, maybe? Perhaps we'll get to see a bit more care from Glory Girl now, given that she's been helping put stuff back together and has seen how much work it is.

No offence, GG, but you can be a bit of a bother.

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* * *

 **May 16** **th** **, 2011. Monday.**

"Hey, isn't that Glory Girl over there?" Swarm pointed, looking down at Shadow.

"Just a minute." The Vulpix murmured, her eyes glowing pink. She finished moving the blocks around, placing them where she'd been asked by the construction workers. She got a thumbs up for her trouble, and she waved back before following Swarm's hand. "Yeah, I think it is."

The flying Brute seemed to be making trips back and forth across a street, moving bags of something from the road side into the back of a truck. Her normal tiara was missing, replaced by a hard hat, and she was wearing a bright orange jacket over her standard costume, which made both girls chuckle a little.

Admittedly Swarm was wearing the same- even though she was only doing guard duty for the looks of things it was still a construction site- and arguably looked _more_ ridiculous in them, the idea of a highly-invulnerable Brute in a hard hat to protect her from rubble seemed silly.

"She looks like she's doing pretty good." Shadow added, still tracking the girl. "We should go and talk to her."

"Shadow!"

"Right after we finish with this." She finished, putting the illusion of an orange safety jacket over her body and trotting over to the builder who'd hailed her.

Swarm listened absently through her bugs as he showed Shadow some things on a blueprint, pointing out where they'd need to go in the actual physical building in front of them, and explaining where they'd like her to help out. Her little team mate was very attentive, and seemed quite knowledgeable about the subject, to her surprise, but Eon had mentioned once about having helped build their own home in the part of town they lived in- mostly designing it, but clearly they'd both picked up quite a bit from that experience alone.

Most of it went straight over Swarm's head, though, so she just kept an eye on things over there while searching the area for any possible troublemakers.

Not that any was expected. Aside from the obvious fact of the Endbringer Truce still being in effect from yesterday, she, Shadow and Glory Girl weren't exactly hiding their presence, there were construction workers _everywhere_ who'd probably take offence to their work being interrupted- she'd even recognised a few people who worked with her dad in the Docks, running about being helpful- and she was almost certain that she'd seen a number of both Empire and ABB gangers wandering about in a sort of patrol rota with her bugs.

They'd crossed paths a few times, and each time she'd readied herself for a fight she'd have to intervene in, only for the groups to nod… not _amicably_ to each other, but at least peacefully, before walking past each other. One of them had stopped to trade information on difficult areas, offering cigarettes all around while they talked.

It had been odd to observe, and Swarm couldn't help but wish it happened more often.

Not the Endbringer bit, though. That hadn't been fun.

Looking around again, she noticed Glory Girl emptying another bag into the truck- it looked like cement- before landing next to a couple of people. They spoke for a few moments, the blonde nodding and taking off her helmet and jacket. She offered them back to the one builder, who waved her off with a laugh. She seemed surprised, based on her body language, but nodded, folding the jacket up and putting it in the hard hat before taking off again.

Curious as to how the girl was doing, and thinking that Shadow would probably want to speak to her friend again to check on her as well, Swarm set a few bugs to fly circles around her, catching her attention. She looked around rapidly, then caught sight of the bug Cape standing down the street and began flying towards her.

"Hey there Swarm!" She grinned, touching down next to her.

"Hello, Glory Girl." She replied, smiling slightly in return. "You seemed to be having fun."

"Heck yeah, was I! It's not every day I get to actually help build things, rather than just trash stuff. It's pretty fun." The girl laughed. "And you can call me Vicky, like Shadow does."

"Ok, Vicky." Swarm acknowledged. "And I suppose it would be a change of pace to get to build things, even if you're just moving stuff from one side of the road to the other. I'm not doing much of that, just playing guard. No Brute powers or magical telekinesis like the others."

"Shame, that." Vicky commiserated, looking around. "Where is Shadow, anyway?"

"She's inside, helping hold some stuff up inside so the builders can put it all into place." Evaluating the face of the Cape in front of her for a moment, then glancing upwards to see the time- already approaching midday- she made a decision. "Say, fancy running to Fugly's and grabbing some burgers? I know I could do with lunch, and Shadow probably could as well when she gets done inside." Poking around the inside of her pack with a firefly for light and a few of the better-sighted bugs, she checked how much money she had on her, then added, "It's on me, if you want."

Vicky looked conflicted for a moment, then nodded. "Sure, I could go for food. Is Fugly's even open, though?"

"I checked on the way over, trying to figure out where we could go for food during the day." Swarm said, as she headed over to the building being worked on. "It's open, somehow. The Boardwalk managed to do pretty ok all things considered, which is nice. There's also a bunch of restaurants Shadow and I were hoping to grab places at if it wasn't. Shadow's curious about Thai food, but that place doesn't do takeout."

"Is that the place down on fourth street? Kinda little place, out of the way corner?" She asked, to a nod. "I've eaten there before, it's nice. Amy loves the panang nua there. Definitely would recommend that, when you've got time." She gave her mask a glance. "How would you manage to eat there, by the way? I guess the mask would make that harder."

"Shadow or Eon could use that illusion from yesterday, it'd work fine." She shrugged. "Might make it difficult for the people that want to take pictures of the Capes eating out, but we could probably either make it only cover the lower bit of my face, or just adjust it a little in some other way that'd let them have their photos fine."

"Huh, cool." Vicky floated behind her as she went over to one of the builders, getting pointed to her team mate a moment later.

"Hey Shadow, Vicky's dropped by. The two of us are going to go grab food, burgers ok?"

"Burgers are fine, thanks." Shadow said absently, focused on floating the boards into the right positions as people worked. "If I'm done before you, I'll come find you guys."

"We shouldn't be long." Swarm told her, before turning and leaving. "Seeya later." Quickly, she went over to one of the builders standing over a blueprint. "Hey, do you want this back? I'm heading away for a bit."

"Nah, keep 'em, the boss won't mind." The man waved off. "There's always more where it came from. Consider it a souvenir."

"Thanks." Swarm smiled, then went back to Vicky, shrugging off her jacket and folding it up, stuffing it into her helmet like she had. "Alright, everything's good, let's go get burgers made of heart attacks."

Vicky laughed, floating alongside her as they left the building site and quickly turned into an alleyway, Swarm using her bugs to guide herself through the minor maze towards the burger place.

"I could've flown us both, you know." Vicky offered, after a few minutes of quiet walking. "You're a lot taller than Ames is, but I could still manage."

"True, but it's not too much of an inconvenience to walk, really. And it's a rare day when a pair of Capes can walk through alleyways without having to intervene in a random mugging or something." She grinned, as Vicky laughed again. "I'd like to make the most of it."

"I can take that as a reason." She nodded. "Seriously, Brockton Bay gets so many muggings, it's absurd. Nice of it to be quiet for once, even if the reasons aren't the best."

"Absolutely." Swarm took a left, checked around once with her bugs, then exited the alley, ending up almost on the main street, about three stores down from Fugly Bobs.

"Huh, I never knew about this." Vicky commented, looking around as they went down the mostly abandoned street.

"I'm not surprised, given that you seem to fly everywhere." Swarm snarked. "Not that I wouldn't do it either, if I could, but being ground bound means you tend to learn a lot of little shortcuts around town." She turned sharply, pushed open the doors, then grinned under her mask as the few people in there went silent and turned to stare at her.

Vicky floated in behind her, hovering at her side as they made their way to the counter, Swarm working a group of spiders to pull some twenties free of the bundle and bring them up to the top of the backpack while others opened it up for her to take.

"Two sets of burgers and medium fries, please." She requested, increasing the amount of insect buzz in her voice slightly. "Vicky?"

"Same, if you don't mind- oooh, they do wings here now?" The Brute noticed. "Maybe we should get some to try as well."

"Shadow tends to like wings, so we might as well." Swarm nodded. "Coke?"

"I'll take Coke."

"And three Cokes, medium, all to go."

"Ahhh…" The server at the counter stuttered, then recovered, quickly typing the order up. "That'll be $30.95, please."

Swarm handed over a pair of twenties, waited a moment for the change, then the two Capes stood over to one side and chatted about nothing in particular while waiting for the order. She had Vicky drop the money into her backpack for her, the spiders closing the pouch again, then nearly five minutes later left with three bags of burgers and fries, a bag of wings, and a takeout plate with three Cokes on it.

They made it around the corner back into the alley before they started laughing.

"Oh, my god." Vicky gasped. "That was hilarious."

"Did you see their _faces_?" Swarm chortled. "I've never seen a group of people look so stunned in my life."

"That poor server." She grinned. "I've seen them look like that before, but normally only when the eight of us in New Wave all show up at once for food. Or sometimes when my aura gets away with me, but normally Mom yells at me when that happens and makes me apologise." The girl kept smiling for a moment, then realised what she'd said. Swarm saw her face drop and shifted the Coke to an easier grip in one hand, leaving the other free to wrap around her.

"Hey, are you alright?" Swarm said softly, then mentally facepalmed. _Of course she's not, you idiot._

"Yeah, I'm fine." She lied indistinctly from her shoulder. "It just kinda… hit me again, y'know? Mom's not gonna be around to yell at me the next time my aura goes out of control when we're eating out, or the next time I fly into a building because I got distracted by something shiny in a window." She sniffed. "Or because I forgot to do an essay because I was out patrolling all the time, or spending time with my boyfriend. And she's not gonna ever be able to congratulate me because I did something really good on patrol, or got great marks in an exam." She leaned back, rubbing at her eyes. "I just… obviously I knew all that, but it just kinda hit me for real that it's never gonna happen again." Swarm nodded, searching around with her bugs, then tapped her arm.

"Hey, take us up to that building there, would you?" She requested, taking a hold of the two bags the flying Cape was holding. Vicky stared at her for a moment, then nodded, lifting her up. They both sat on the edge of the building, Swarm putting down the food, and she opened her arms to Vicky while sending Shadow a text with her bugs. "I had… a similar problem when my mom died, though that was years ago for me. I wasn't a Cape then, though I've wondered a lot what she would've thought of me doing Cape stuff and what she would've thought of my team. But when she died, it took kinda a while to sink in that she was gone. I was just… numb, for a while, like I was half expecting someone to jump out at me and tell me it was all a prank, then one morning I just woke up and burst into tears because it hit me that she was gone. We used to do loads together; she'd help me with my homework and she'd let me help with her marking- not really, I'd make little notes on a piece of paper with a pencil about things I thought were wrong, and she'd put them down if they really were. But we did loads of stuff, and it hit me that morning that we'd never be able to do that ever again."

Swarm shrugged, resolutely ignoring the tears in her eyes. "But I still had dad, and some friends, and they helped me out with it."

Vicky was quiet for a moment, still burying her face in Swarm's shoulder. "I'm sorry about your mom."

"And I'm sorry about yours, too." She said quietly. "But I manage by thinking about how she must be feeling about me being a hero, and helping people. Even though I don't do much, compared to my team mates, I still do my best to help out and be a hero, and I hope I make her proud with what I'm doing."

"I made the same promise to myself yesterday." Vicky admitted. "It was after that thing with Shadow. I want to be a better person, someone who'd make mom proud for being a good hero. That's part of why I was out there today, helping with the building. I want to be a good person and help people, not just be a flashy hero that fights crime and wrecks people's shit. I kinda want to be more like you guys are, to be honest; you're all good people, you patrol and help with big and little problems, but you're always so nice to anyone you see on the street too. I just… want to be more helpful, and try not to make any mistakes, and hopefully mom'll be proud of me for that."

"You're not gonna make _no_ mistakes, Vicky." Both girls startled slightly at the sound of another voice behind them, and turned to see Shadow jumping down from a wooden plank that she had used to carry herself up with her telekinesis. "Literally everyone in the world is gonna make mistakes. We made mistakes, both starting out and even now. But just do your best, and I'm sure your mom would be proud of you doing that and taking things seriously."

The three of them sat there for a while, Vicky slowly recovering from her sudden breakdown, when Shadow came in again.

"I know what you mean about things just hitting you like that, though. About… fourteen months ago, give or take some, about a year after Eon and I started our team, we got a letter that meant we had to go visit my aunt and uncle. She'd had a clutch of eggs, and one of them had hatched wrong." She pursed her lips, looking down. "Did you know eggs can have twins?"

"Really?" Swarm asked, while Vicky blinked at the non sequitur.

"Yeah, but it doesn't normally work out. The two babies in the egg can't share the yolk in there properly, so normally one of them ends up pretty weak when they hatch." Shadow sighed. "For my aunt, though… neither of the babies survived hatching. The yolk split weirdly, so neither of them lived when they hatched. She was absolutely devastated; she'd already picked names and everything, Eltria and Destine for girls, or Felix and Leimen for boys. There were a couple of others in the clutch, too, and they were fine, so she clung on to those while everyone got together for a funeral for them." She pawed at her eyes, while Vicky and Swarm both ran hands down her back. "It really, really sucked, and she was grieving for ages. She had so much trouble getting up some days, because she didn't want to have to deal with it." She lashed a tail and looked up at Vicky. "But she kept getting up for the sake of the other little ones, because she knew she had to do something. Sometimes my uncle had to get her up, or sometimes the others in the town would come to the house and get them up, and just drag them both to a park or something, to make them do things, until they got better. They were still recovering when we came here, but they were a lot better when we last spoke.

"So do me a favour, and make sure Amy gets out of bed on the days she doesn't want to, even if it's just to go for a walk down the road. Get Amy to do the same thing for you, if you don't want to do anything that day and just want to cry; at least cry with your sister. And, if neither of you want to do anything, send me a message on PHO. I'll show up at your door with a pint of ice cream and nick your spoons, we can watch terrible movies or something." She reached up and laid a paw on Vicky's leg. "Let the grief run its course, sure, but don't just wallow in it, ok?"

"Yeah." Vicky nodded, swallowing heavily. "I can do that, sure."

"Good." Shadow smiled, then reached behind her and telekinetically grabbed the bags of food, now slightly cold. "Now, I smell wings in here."

"Leave some for us, you silly trickster." Swarm scolded, reaching for her own bag. "And give me a cloak, will you?"

"Sure." She flicked her tail again, blurring her team mate's face, then dove through the bag again. After a while, she began telling stories again, just rambling about some adventures, even though she knew Vicky wasn't listening, the girl soon flying away with a murmured goodbye.

"What sort of Pokemon were your cousins?" Swarm asked lowly, curious.

"A Rockruff and an Eevee. Aunt was a Jolteon, Uncle was a Lycanroc." She replied softly, slightly miserable. "I miss them. I wrote to them about a week before we left, saying I probably wouldn't be around for a while, and that I was glad she was getting better. I hope she's still doing well."

"She will be. She's got her family, and all of yours, and from what you've said there's a lot of you." Swarm assured her. "She'll be fine, and when you go back, you can tell her all about the stuff that happened here."

"Yeah…" She mused. "I can."

* * *

 **(Showing page 8559 of 8563)**

► **Aloha**  
Replied On May 19th 2011:

To be honest, there's apparently been a lot of work thrown into things the last few days. Its pretty cool to see, actually, I've looked out of my window and just seen construction going on, but it's amazing how quickly everything's happening.

► **bothad**  
Replied On May 19th 2011:

at least things are good now taken very little time

► **Singlet**  
Replied On May 19th 2011:

Things really are going quick, and I for one love it!

Wish we could talk about why...

Ah well, it's only two weeks of silence before we can begin speculating and/or announcing what went on during the attack, right?

► **GellSine**  
Replied On May 19th 2011:

If you want to be technical, it's ten days. But yeah, **Singlet** , I get what you mean, I'm desperate to know what happened!

Not desperate enough to risk a ban, though. :P

► **BrocktonBayMod** (Moderator)  
Replied On May 19th 2011:

And that's a good thing, **GellSine** , we tend to have enough work in these threads as it is.

► **Acree**  
Replied On May 19th 2011:

 _cough_ VoidCowboy _cough_

Sorry, something stuck in my throat there.

Anyway, anyone else hear the rumours that Team Inari were supposed to be having a meeting at Somer's Rock today? No idea who it's with, maybe someone in the Protectorate?

► **Laotsunn** (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On May 19th 2011:

Ah.

I didn't hear anything about that...

But I did hear from a buddy that Lung apparently had business today, and someone was driving him to Somer's Rock...

► **Chrome**  
Replied On May 19th 2011:

...

Damn, really?

► **Arombee**  
Replied On May 19th 2011:

What would Lung want to talk to Team Inari about? Is he going to try and persuade them to join the ABB? Could Swarm even do that? No-one knows what colour she is.

► **AllSeeingEye**  
Replied On May 19th 2011:

I highly doubt Team Inari would be leaving the side of the heroes, **Arombee**. They like being nice too much, from what I've seen. And you might want to back away a bit on the thing with Swarm, might come too close to speculating on an identity, and we wouldn't want to give the mods more work.

But yeah, no idea what Lung might need to say to Team Inari. Ought to be an interesting meeting to be a fly on the wall in, that's for sure...

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* * *

 **May 19th, 2011. Thursday.**

"All set, girls?" Eon asked softly, under the cloak of the illusion.

"Good to go, Eon." Swarm replied, while Shadow just nodded. "Lung's not there yet, though it's nearly the meeting time."

"Can't see him anywhere?" He checked.

"Nowhere."

"Then we're going in now, and we'll wait for him." The leader decided. "Might as well, and I somehow doubt he'll keep us waiting too long. Don't suppose either of you want to order a drink?" Shadow snorted.

"Do they even do drinks other than alcohol here?"

"I don't think they do alcohol at all, actually." Swarm commented, as she organised herself into the third ' _slot'_ of the team. "Given that this is a meeting place, and normally used by people who have pretty high tempers and a lot of reason to disagree over things. Alcohol seems like a poor choice of things to be serving."

"That's true."

"Still wouldn't want a drink, though." She added. "I'd assume the place takes care of things, and I know Shadow can do an illusion to cover the fact that my mask's up, but I don't think I'd like to sit there drinking something when there's a conversation like this going on. Even if I can't contribute much."

"You contribute what you need to, in the end." Shadow shrugged. "Sometimes, after a Dungeon, I've been in the report meeting and never said a word, because I didn't have anything to add that my team mates hadn't handled just fine. If you need to put something in, because you think it might be helpful or because we forgot it, then you do."

"Right." Swarm nodded. "So, time to go?"

"Sure thing." Eon agreed, dropping the illusion over the three. They made their way into Somer's Rock, nodding in greeting to the woman by the bar, and sat down in a seat with a good view of the door.

After a few minutes of waiting- Swarm leaning back in her seat slightly, Shadow curled into a sort of ball on hers, and Eon sitting bolt upright in the centre- Swarm stiffened, shifted a little to her left, and tapped the very end of one of Eon's tails, making him flick an ear towards her.

"Car just entered my range. Black, big car, I think maybe a limousine, no bugs on the inside and the windows are up so there's no chance of me getting some in there. Blacked out windows too, by the way, and heading towards us based on the movement I'm getting."

"Guess that's probably Lung." Eon muttered, straightening a little further. Shadow, hearing them, huffed a little and sat up as well. Swarm remained where she was, just shuffling back to her original place.

Another few minutes later, and the Dragon of Kyushu strolled into the pub as well, waving off the bartender and coming straight to their table.

"Greetings, Team Inari." He offered a half bow before sitting down. "I hope I did not keep you too long."

"Not at all, Lung." Eon returned, with a courtly nod. "Now, you made the request for this meeting, and from the tone of your letter, I'd assume you have questions."

"I, and every other who saw your team's part in the attack a few days ago, and your actions since." Lung rumbled, a deep chuckle in his voice. "But yes, _Kyuubi_ , I have questions. I was hopeful that you would answer them."

"Naturally, that will depend on what the answers are." Eon quirked a smile. "But go ahead, Lung. We will answer what we will."

"As you will." The masked dragon looked at the three for a moment, evaluating them. Eon easily met his gaze in return. "Shadow." The Vulpix tilted her head. "How powerful are you, in truth? To take out Leviathan in that way… I do not believe any Parahuman has ever managed to do such a thing." He paused. "Leviathan has been driven off through damage to itself before, however it is rare. Normally it seems only to leave after some time. Not even I, in Kyushu, was able to fight it off in time."

Trading a look with Eon, who nodded and ceded the floor to her, Shadow thought for a moment. "You know what we are, yes?"

"A kitsune, and your _Kyuubi_ partner."

"Basically, yes. Eon's older than me- I'm not certain _how much_ older, we leave that sort of thing alone- but old enough to be who he is, obviously. We were sent here by a friend, a portal-maker, to help fix things here. We came in not knowing what we were supposed to fix, admittedly, but we found that out fairly quickly." She explained. "It was rather confusing to see what we were up against, there's far more powerful… spirits, I suppose, than us that would've been of use, but we've managed so far."

Lung's eyes had gone wide, enough to see through the mask.

"Our world has many of these spirits on it." Eon put in. "Some weaker, some stronger. For the most part, we like to help. Personally, Shadow and I were both unaware of your world until the portal-maker, considered one of the most powerful, came to us to help it. I feel it's likely that the situation is the same for most of those in our world, though _why_ I wouldn't know."

"Perhaps it's something similar to Earth Aleph." Swarm suggested. "People here didn't know about there until the day the portals started opening and we made contact."

"Perhaps, but there are some powerful spirits back home. I find it hard to believe they were unaware of here." Eon shrugged, rippling.

"Whatever it might be, though, we were sent here by our portal-maker friend to help. Perhaps dealing with the Endbringers is what we were brought here to to do, perhaps it's something else." Shadow continued, bringing their attention back to her. "Whatever it is, we'll do our best to help."

"I see." Lung murmured. "And your strength?"

"A lot of that was from dumb luck, if I'm honest." She said honestly. "All of us- from the kitsune and _Kyuubi_ to those spirits that look like turtles or mice- have the ability to boost ourselves in different ways, or weaken others. That's... what I did when I first met you, in fact. We call these abilities Moves; the one I used on you was Charm, which lowers the physical attacking power of whoever's targeted. I can chose _not_ to target someone, which spreads the effect out across everyone in the room- most Moves target by room- but at cost of some of the power."

"Ahhh, so you were using that on Leviathan, then." Lung said, in tones of realisation. "Or rather, Eon did, given that you were healing."

"Actually, no." Eon admitted. "While the Moves worked fine on you, and seemed to work ok when we used them against other Capes, we weren't certain whether or not they would work on an Endbringer, given that they don't seem to work the same way as normal Capes from the things we found online. So I didn't bother trying to weaken Leviathan; I'd've just been wasting time if it hadn't worked." _That, and I don't have that many great debuff Moves anyway._ Eon added privately. _Should work on that._

"Instead, both Eon and I focused on using those Moves to boost ourselves." Shadow took over. "Eon especially. None of my own abilities would help me in healing, which is what I was doing, aside from a… meditation technique, I suppose, which helped me focus. Eon, on the other paw, being the one doing more combat, would've been boosted a lot more."

"I believe that's likely why you were escalating so quickly when we fought before you went after Leviathan." Eon continued. "I'd boosted myself up to almost maximum, and while that did degrade as the fight went on, I put them all back up as soon as you went back into combat with Leviathan."

"So that is how _you_ did so much damage to Leviathan, _Kyuubi_." Lung nodded understandingly. "But Shadow?"

"I was boosting as well, from the moment Eon was fully healed to the moment I fired that Thunder." Shadow told him. "The technique I was using, Calm Mind, helps make my ranged attacks more powerful, and Charge helped it along as well. It makes my electricity more powerful, after all, and it was also helpful for actually letting me _use_ the attack I wanted. Normally spirits that can do that can also make their own clouds, being lightning-spirits, or dragon ones. I can't do that, I need someone else to do it for me and to Charge myself to the right polarity to let me call down lightning afterwards." She grinned widely, shrugging a little. "I got incredibly lucky with which way I was Charging."

"I… see." He stumbled. "And the power behind it?"

"Mostly the boosts, like I said." She shrugged again, the grin growing minutely wider. "Of course, I overpowered it a little as well. Because of all the rain, I wasn't quite sure whether or not the lightning was going to end up dispersing into the rain around it, which would take some of the power out of it. So instead I threw as much power as I could into it to make sure that whatever hit was still powerful enough to hopefully scary Leviathan off."

"And, of course, when that didn't happen, the Thunder ended up much _more_ powerful than expected." Eon chuckled.

"True, but it did what I wanted." Shadow nodded to her team leader, then looked back at Lung, who seemed to be in shock. She could vaguely hear Swarm chortling to herself in the background, under the cover of quiet coughs, and suppressed a snicker of her own. "Is there anything else you wish to ask?"

"Ah- perhaps not, kitsune Shadow." He managed, after a moment. "However, I do have an offer for you."

The three members of Team Inari swapped covert glances, then Shadow shuffled slightly back to allow Eon to handle it.

"An offer?" He asked carefully, mentally preparing himself.

While he trusted Swarm to be correct about the truce, both on Somer's Rock and behind the Endbringers, he still wasn't completely certain it would be safe. And while both he and Shadow were perfectly fireproof, Swarm very wasn't. He wouldn't risk that.

"Indeed." Lung paused, apparently organising his thoughts, then said slowly, "I assume you are aware that most of the gangs in this city have moles within the PRT."

"We were… vaguely aware of this, yes." Tattletale had basically admitted that outright, during their talk nearly a month before, and hinted that it was practically an open secret- among both the villainous _and_ heroic circles, though not so much in the public eye.

"I have already had my moles keeping an eye out within the organisation for any mention they see of your team." He explained. "I am quite willing to arrange for any information that may be potentially… worrying, to your team, to be delivered discreetly to you, so you can be properly forewarned. A copy of your threat report, also, if you wish."

"That is… incredibly generous, of you." Eon stated, after a moment of slightly wide-eyed thought. "And in return?"

"I would like to request that you do your best to leave my people alone." He said. "An alliance, basically. I know you have been avoiding my gang for the most part anyway, aside from the times you see them obviously doing something, and word from some of my other informants is that you prefer the Merchants as a target for the most part anyway." He huffed. "Something I can very much agree with. I do not ask that you leave my people entirely alone, nor that you help me should I conflict with the Empire again rather than stand with other heroes trying to split us apart. If you find one of my gang attacking someone in an alley, as heroes you would obviously try and help. But avoiding my activities as best as you can would be my request, though I will also do my best to keep my activities out of your eye." There was an audible smirk behind the metal mask. "To give plausible deniability, of course. You cannot possibly deal with events that you never see or hear."

"Naturally." Eon smirked in return, shooting a glance first at Swarm, then at Shadow. "Might we have a moment to speak?"

"Of course." The Dragon of Kyushu stood and walked away, and Eon layered a quick silencing illusion over them all.

"Thoughts?"

"Sounds like a good plan to me." Swarm put in immediately. "We've already been mostly avoiding the ABB anyway, to avoid annoying Lung after what happened back in April. We'll basically be getting some information we wouldn't normally have access to for continuing to do what we're doing."

"On the other hand, we have no idea if the information we'd be picking up is correct, or if Lung was messing with it to bring us into a bad situation, or make us more confident in dealing with the PRT when we have no reason to." Shadow countered.

"Why would he do that? He's pretty much terrified of you, thinking that you're genuine kitsune and _Kyuubi_ from Inari, or at least something similar, he's seen how powerful the two of you are and you've already admitted that neither of you are anywhere near the most powerful ' _spirits'_ ," she gave the word a slight air quote, "In your world. He's got no good reason to want to trick you, and several good ones _not_ to."

"We've already said we can't access any of the others, though."

"You… actually haven't." Swarm corrected. "You said earlier that there were others stronger than you, and they're not here, but you haven't said you couldn't reach them. For all he knows, your portal-maker friend is just waiting for you to call to send in back up. He's already aware that you can take him out, could probably kill him just as easily, and while he's under the impression of you being proper kitsune he probably thinks of you as tricksters and jokers, waiting to get under his guard, and he's trying to build up goodwill so that you _don't_ decide to completely wreck him for some insult he probably didn't realise happened, either from himself or his gang." Eon raised an eyebrow at her, and she shuffled a little, most likely blushing below her mask. "I read up on a _lot_ of kitsune myths since we met. I'm no expert, but I know a bit now."

"Good job." He smiled at her. "Shadow?"

"Honestly, I think we should do it too." She admitted. "But I felt like someone needed to play the other end here."

"Then we're all in agreement about taking the deal?"

"Mhm."

"Sure."

"Alright then." Eon hummed a little, glancing between the two girls. "Hopefully nothing goes wrong."

"Like I said, I doubt it." Swarm shrugged. "Lung'd have to be mad to try pulling one over on us, given what he thinks you two are. Keeping his word is the smart thing, if we keep ours." She suddenly chuckled. "He might even keep it if we _didn't_ , since he thinks you're kitsune."

"Perhaps, but we ought keep our word anyway." Eon laughed softly back. "If only because it's polite." Flicking his tail absently, he removed the audio cloak, then caught Lung's eye from where he was lingering, making the Parahuman return to the table. "Team Inari gladly accepts your offer, Lung. It would be a pleasure to work alongside you in such a way."

"Similarly, _Kyuubi_ Eon." He held out his hand, which the Ninetales shook. "I hope my team can be of assistance to yours." He shot a glance to where a cloak was sitting above the bar, quietly ticking away, then back to them. "I will not keep you and your team for longer. I'm certain you have other things to be dealing with, given your work around the city."

"And you would as well, of course." Eon nodded, as the gang leader stood up. "May you have good fortune in your work."

"And yours." Lung looked a little uncomfortable for a moment, based on his body language, and quickly made his retreat outside. There was the sound of a car door opening, then closing before driving off a few seconds later.

They all relaxed minutely.

"Come on girls, let's get moving." Eon told them, shifting and jumping down from the chair with an easy movement. To his left, Shadow did the same, following him out of the door a few paces behind, and Swarm pushed herself to her feet and began walking in the same moment on his right. He waited until they were all across the street, then led them all into an alleyway and dropped a cloak over them all. "Swarm, I think you ought to head home. Tell Danny what went on if you want, but there's not really a need for you to be out and about. No criminals wanting to risk the Truce and all. I'm going to look around a bit more, see if I can help anyone, and Shadow you can do the same if you want."

"I'll take Swarm back home first, then go for a wander." She replied. "Meet back at the base by ten?"

"If we don't run into each other before then." Eon agreed. The illusion collapsed again, the two girls splitting off in the vague direction of Taylor's home, while Eon went further into the city, looking around at the ongoing construction around him and waving at Glory Girl, who was hovering in a doorframe holding up a segment of building, looking like she'd recovered from the conversation she'd had with Swarm and Shadow on Monday.

"Hey, Eon!" Someone called from another building, making him look up and trot over to the source of the voice, a construction worker who was waving him over. "Mine helping with this?"

"Not at all, sir." Eon said, following the man towards a pile of metal beams. "What do you need?"

"We need some help getting these into position, they're stabilisers to take some weight off the walls while we work." He explained, waving at the wall, which had an awfully large hole in it. "If you could just put these there…"

* * *

" _Colin?"_

"Dragon? Is something wrong?"

" _One of the drones I've set to looking over the bay for damage found something… odd."_

"Odd how?"

" _It's a massive chunk of turquoise something. It looks like crystal, but from my scans it's not made of any kind I've ever seen._

"Was it power generated or something?"

" _I don't know, but… it's almost exactly in the path Leviathan took when he ran away."_

* * *

 **AN: And so ends part two. Bit of a different format, here; wanted to use a PHO bit, but also had scenes I wanted to show, rather than tell about elsewhere, so I merged the two together and brought you this! The PHO stuff didn't actually take too long, this time; guess that's what happens when you only do a page per.**

 **I'm doing my best to keep up with chapters, but I'm also drowning in long school projects, even during the summer, so I'm trying not to die on this one... unlike the others, which keep drifting away.**


	23. Chapter 20

**A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 20.**

 **Conversations, cuddles, and phone calls.**

* * *

 **May 20th, 2011. Friday.**

"Morning, Eon." Taylor said, stifling a yawn. "What's up?"

" _Shadow's gone to visit the Dallon's, so I was wandering if Swarm wanted to come out and patrol with me."_ The silver Ninetales replied, sounding similarly tired.

"I guess I could, sure." She glanced at the clock, then held the phone to her ear with her shoulder while she started sorting out her costume, now completely repaired from the damage it'd taken when her arm had been crushed. "Don't see why we should really bother, given that it's still technically Endbringer Truce and most the building work is getting along well enough to not need Parahuman assistance, but I'm game."

" _To be honest, I was mostly thinking of it as a way to just relax without being stuck at the Den or your house."_ He admitted. " _We always need to be careful at your house, and here at the Den there's nothing to do."_

"Maybe we should see about getting internet installed." She joked, digging out her mask.

" _Pretty sure that would mean bringing people to the Den, which I'm not fond of, but it could still happen."_ She could hear a shrug. " _Either way, Shadow's going to be making new allies and having fun, so I figured a couple of routes around town just having a wander would be nice. Show the flag, have a look around at things, talk about some stuff that's alright for public- or just shove an audio illusion over us both and not care- and maybe say hello if any of the Wards or Protectorate happen to cross our paths."_

"We should probably try and keep some kind of operational security, even if you can stop people from hearing us, Eon." Taylor laughed. "But that's fine. I'll meet you at the Den in… maybe an hour? I still need to eat, and I smell food downstairs."

" _You go do that, I'll see you then, Swarm."_ The Ninetales hung up on her, leaving Taylor to find a bag to stuff her costume in, followed by a bunch of random other bits, a few squares of spider silk fabric just in case she got an opportunity to drag Eon to talk to someone, and her phone. Heading downstairs, she grinned at her father, who was sitting at the table with a plate of pancakes reading the paper.

"Hi, Dad." She waved, hurriedly pulling her own plate over and sliding into a seat.

"Good morning, Taylor." He smiled back. "I heard you talking to someone?"

"Eon." She filled in, pouring syrup over the pancakes and grabbing a knife and fork. "He was wondering if I fancied a wander around town today, just to talk and show the flag, so to speak. Shadow's over at the Dallon's, apparently, so it'd just be the two of us going about town. I'm gonna meet him at the Den and we'll just go from there." She looked over at him. "That's ok, right?"

"I'm glad you're spending time with your friends, Taylor." He assured her. "Even if it _is_ running around in a costume terrifying and beating up muggers."

"There's not going to be many of the muggers around at least, most of them aren't _quite_ stupid enough to be causing trouble during rebuilding." She paused. "Well, there's the Merchants, but I hear they've been having some awful difficulties recently."

"Difficulties involving bugs and strange invisible things vanishing their drugs and money, by any chance?" Danny asked, looking amused.

"Something like that, yeah." She chuckled in return. "It's apparently become something of an open secret that we like to target the Merchants. To everyone but the Merchants, I guess."

"I'll never be opposed to you dealing with the drug dealers, Taylor." Danny told her. "Now, eat those pancakes and go have some fun. I'll be keeping an eye on PHO at work to make sure you don't blow something up or whatever."

"We never do, Dad." Taylor blushed. "We're careful, neither Eon nor Shadow's fire burns anything normally because they're good at controlling it, and I haven't caused any trouble with my bugs yet."

"Having a healer on team probably helps, so remember that you don't have her today if you get into trouble."

"I won't."

* * *

"Hey Eon." Taylor waved, jogging into the clearing.

"Hi, Taylor." He smiled back, waving a tail. "Have a good night after yesterday?"

"Yeah, it was nice. Dad and I talked a lot, I think he might want to talk to you about that deal we made with Lung and what you think of it, but we can do that later." She swung the backpack from her shoulders and started digging for her costume, a shield of bugs growing around her as she did. "So, what's the plan for today? Just wander around looking at stuff and get some food?"

"Pretty much." Eon agreed. "If we find some trouble we'll end it, obviously, but otherwise just a walk about town and maybe a meal if there's any nice restaurants open."

"There should be. Enough of the Boardwalk managed to get left sort of alone, somehow, even despite that stupid tsunami, and even then there's plenty of places that aren't on the Boardwalk we could go to." She responded from behind the wall. "Anything in particular you want to try, or are we just going wherever we find first?"

"I'd say that Thai place, but I know Shadow wants to go there and wouldn't ever let us live it down if we went without her." He hummed. "Maybe we can try around that area and see if there's anything nice around it that isn't that?"

"Fine by me, just make sure you bring a lot of cash." She nodded. "Some of those places are _expensive_ to eat at. Not as bad as on the Boardwalk, sure, but still not great by any means."

"Will do, Swarm." Eon made his way over to the Den, pulling the Wonder Bag over towards him while he opened the box with all of their money in it. Pulling a bundle out, he spent a moment looking at the amount the team had, before chuckling and turning away again. "So quickly back up to a budget like we're used to… and far easier than how it happened back home." With a half grin, half grimace at the memory of some of the _horrible_ missions they'd done as a team for starting cash- _or to make up the cash for Shadow's massive splurge on the recipe for Max Elixirs, even if it_ has _been well used_ \- Eon dumped the bundle into the Wonder Bag, plucked the Map from its place on the shelf, and tied his scarf around his neck with the Badge in pride of place.

He liked this scarf. Swarm had made it from spider silk, then carefully dyed it silver-white so it blended in quite well with his fur. He once again made a mental note to talk to the Kecleon twins that ran the market in town, as well as his Ariados team mate, to see if it would be possible to do something similar and if it would sell.

Then again, maybe it'd be better to approach… whoever it was that ran the tailors in town, he couldn't remember right now. He hadn't had much contact with them, but they'd probably know better than the Kecleon or him whether or not silk scarves like these would sell. Shadow would probably know, actually, he recalled that she'd gotten a bunch of scarves and bags made for her siblings as a birthday gift a little while before they'd left for Bet, though not made out of silk like this one.

Shaking his head, Eon pulled himself out of his thoughts- it'd be a while before he would be able to do that, after all, so it could wait- and wandered back out of the Den, seeing Swarm fully in costume, drawing her bugs back into the secret slots on her clothes while hiding the bag out of sight in a little storage area in the Den. That had been added a little while ago, when they'd finally decided it was too much hassle for Swarm to duck in, and far too much work to build the Den upwards more, so they'd added a hatch that dropped into a box for her stuff, and a pulley system that used her spiders to bring stuff back when it was needed.

"You've gotten really quick at that." He complemented, watching as more spiders closed up the shell backpack and vanished into her hair.

"It's definitely a lot easier than it was before, I'll give you that." She grinned. "There are days where I think I probably shouldn't have fitted this thing so well. But then I normally stop caring, because it looks cool."

"Cool is good, of course, but if you feel miserable, you could always remake it." Eon suggested, laughing when she grimaced.

"No thanks. I've already get this one, plus I'm most the way through the new one- I'd be further, but I had to do those repairs on this one, which put things behind a bit. Plus I lost a few spiders to Leviathan, though most my important ones are safe."

"That's good." Eon trotted over to her side, and after a moment where both of them mentally checked that they had everything, began moving out towards the Bay. "Have you spoken to Aquamarina since she went home?" He asked, as they got closer to the border of the Den's illusion field.

"A few times, yeah." She nodded. "We've talked once over the phone, then we decided that it'd probably be better to just communicate through PHO because that way we can just send messages to each other and get back that way. Plus it doesn't waste messages on the burner phones which we might need for an emergency or something."

"That's a good point. Anything interesting, or...?"

"Not too much, to be honest. We've just talked a bit about our different experiences in the city. LA's a lot better, despite the fact that the city's a lot bigger, because... well, Alexandria." She chuckled. "She apparently scares the crap out of criminals a lot more than most people, so it's mainly petty crime on the outskirts where Alexandria doesn't tend to show up."

"Meanwhile with us, there's stuff going on absolutely everywhere because there's not enough Protectorate to handle the entire city, the Wards aren't supposed to get into Cape fights if they can avoid it, and most the Independents are either neutral, get the hell out of this city as fast as they can, get snatched up by the PRT, or end up dead because of the other Capes." Eon sighed. "Y'know, there are days where I occasionally wonder if we should've arranged to join up with the PRT when we first arrived."

"Really?" Swarm glanced down, a raised eyebrow clear in her voice.

"Mhm. But then I realise it probably wouldn't have worked out well. We didn't think of playing up the kitsune angle and changing our story about a bit until after the chat with Tattletale and our trip to the library, and we'd probably have had to give some kind of story anyway; being all mysterious like we do as independents wouldn't be as much of an option. It's better that we're working separately to the PRT because of that." He shrugged. "I suppose part of the reason I wish we had is because I'm used to the Guild support."

"Pardon?"

"Back home, the Adventurer Guild- well, for us it was specifically the Wigglytuff Guild- works really closely with Rescue Teams in the area. For most Pokemon, the Guild is where you go to leave mission requests, because you know that they'll make sure the team taking it can handle it, and for us it's also a place to request support. If you're in a Dungeon and need some help, you can send a request back with the Badges and they'll send out a new Rescue Team to come help you out of the Dungeon you're stuck in. I don't know if the Wards and Protectorate do the same thing, of course, but even so having someone in the background on the console must be helpful for them."

"I suppose." Swarm nodded. "I'm glad you two didn't, though. We wouldn't have ended up working together if you had."

"Did you ever think of joining the Wards?"

"Only for a few moments, right at the beginning." She said, as they left the field. "But I decided not to. I was struggling in school with the bullies and everything, and jumping into another nest of teenage drama, this time with superpowers added, didn't seem like a good idea. That's also why I never told Dad about my powers until recently, I was pretty sure that he'd want me to join the Wards. I got lucky that I'd already established myself with you guys before I had to tell him."

"Fair enough." Eon hummed. "Going back to the original point, though, I can see why Aquamarina has it a lot easier than us here. I guess Houston and New York probably do too, given that they have the other two parts of the Triumvirate."

"I don't know much about Houston, but New York has its own bundle of issues. The Teeth, for one."

"Ah." Eon knew vaguely what the Teeth were, since it'd come up in the earlier bits of research they'd done on their new world, but it still took a moment to recall. "Led by the Butcher, right? The one that jumps to their killer."

"Yep."

"Yeah, I don't suppose having that group of nutcases around would make New York feel much safer." Eon couldn't help but grumble. "Heck, we're miles away from them and it makes me uneasy."

"There _are_ an awful lot of gangs around, aren't there?" She reflected, as the pair began approaching the outskirts of the city. Most of this area was undamaged, ignoring the amount of mess left behind by little gang skirmishes, but that made it reasonably easy to slip into an alleyway and begin making their way towards the more populated areas for their patrol and wandering about.

"Far too many." Eon agreed. "Our world doesn't really have gangs, as such. There's sometimes groups of outlaws that band together for protection and to make crimes easier, but for the most part all outlaws work solo. It's fairly easy for Rescue Teams to deal with outlaws, even the newer ones. And there's not really _that_ many criminals around even so, for some reason."

"Your world just seems better, to be honest." Swarm admitted, lowering her voice. "If it weren't for Dad- and the whole ' _no memories'_ thing that you have- I'd probably take any offer to come to you guys."

The Ninetales froze, staring up at her.

"Seriously?" He managed, after getting his voice to work. It was still pretty hoarse, though, and he cleared his throat before continuing, "But… why?"

"Better than Bet." She said easily. "No Endbringers to worry about every three months, no real need to worry about suddenly being attacked by criminals, no secret identity needed, and the chance to run about in weird magical dungeons doing stuff for people or just finding things. Plus no bullies."

"I suppose no bullies would be a good reason." He allowed. "But there's bound to be more positives to Bet than you're saying."

"If there are, they're escaping me."

After a moment of thought, Eon nodded. _She's not wrong… there really doesn't seem like much good here._ "Fair enough, I suppose." He sighed, starting walking again. The taller girl followed after him as they ducked into an alleyway, both of them silently agreeing to move off of any subjects that might let secrets out.

"You said Shadow'd gone to the Dallon's?" Swarm asked, after a few moments.

"Yeah. Glory Girl called this morning, woke both of us up. I didn't listen to the call, but she sounded kinda upset. Shadow went out with a lot of money and a bag, muttering something about shopping."

"I see." Eon got the feeling Swarm knew more about this than she was saying, but if Shadow hadn't mentioned it to him before, he wouldn't ask.

It wasn't his to know, it seemed.

"How come you don't call her Vicky?"

"She never said I could."

"That… feels like a weird distinction to make."

"I make the same distinction between your two identities, too. And if anyone else gave me their names, I'd do the same there. It feels… right, I guess."

"Even still, it wasn't Glory Girl who called this morning, it was Vicky. She wasn't calling on Cape business, and she probably wasn't in costume if she was calling from her home, so by your logic it was Vicky calling."

"…You make a good point."

The two of them continued chatting all the way into town, easily ignoring the cameras that were pointed at them once they got onto the main streets.

* * *

Shadow stared upwards at the door, annoyed.

"Dang humans being so much taller than me…" She grumped. "Lessee…" Looking around, she picked up a small rock with her Extrasensory and lifted it to the level of the doorbell, using it to push the button for her. The faint noise of the bell ringing inside made her perk up her ears, and a few minutes later a tall man was at the door, looking vaguely familiar though different to when he was in costume. "Hiya!"

"Oh. Hello, Shadow." Mark Dallon greeted, looking down at her. "I take it you're here to see Vicky and Amy?"

"Yup. Vicky called earlier, so I came, like I said I would." She nodded, as the giant man stepped out of the doorway to let her pass. She carefully shifted the bag off her back, holding it in the air next to her, then squeaked as she suddenly joined it.

"Hi, Shadow." Vicky mumbled, sounding miserable.

"Hey, Vicky." She grinned, once she'd gotten over her shock. "I brought ice cream."

"Thanks." The girl grabbed the floating bag and carried both of them into the main room, where Amy was sitting on the couch looking tired. "Ames, Shadow's here."

"I know, Vicky, I heard." The Brute landed on the couch next to her, placing Shadow in the middle of them both. The Vulpix was promptly snatched up by Amy, who held her close as well.

Shadow just chuckled, shifting slightly to get more comfortable. "You two do realise we're gonna need spoons for the ice cream, right?"

"Mhm."

"Are… you gonna get any, or…?"

"Sure."

"In a minute." Shadow laughed again, shaking her head slightly.

"You two…" She sighed, then nudged Amy in the face. The girl looked at her, apparently a little confused, and she tilted her head. "How many hugs do you two need?"

"Probably a lot."

"We could do it a lot more effectively if you and Vicky were also hugging."

"Good idea." Vicky mumbled, pulled both of them over. Amy was now bright red.

The three of them sat there for a while, Shadow just waiting for the girls to finish up with their cuddle quota and stop being quite as mopey. To try and help it along, Shadow hummed out a tiny Heal Pulse/Heal Bell combo, lighting up the room a little with energy.

Amy mock-glared at her. "That's cheating."

"That's _helping_." Shadow corrected, sticking her tongue out. "That's what I'm here to do, right?"

"Cheating." Amy retorted, still grinning even so. "You're cheating."

"Look, I brought ice cream for this, and if you two sit here moping and cuddling the fluffy fox critter all day then we won't get to eat it."

"…True." Vicky nodded, moving Amy slightly and floating off the couch. "I'll go get spoons." The blonde floated off, and Shadow looked up at Amy.

"So, aside from eat ice cream, what do you want to do?"

"Dunno." Amy shrugged. "I honestly thought today was basically just gonna be us both moping, but with you about and ice cream. I didn't expect you to cheat like that."

Shadow snorted. "So I'm guessing a movie of some kind, laugh at people on PHO, then go for a walk or something?"

"That… could work." She agreed. "Means getting changed again into something better to go out in, though." Shadow glanced at the leggings and t-shirt she was wearing.

"I don't see a problem with that?" She then looked over at Vicky, who'd just floated through the doorway holding three spoons. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, this one slumping off one shoulder.

"It's about presentation. We're not supposed to look silly when going out, because it reflects on New Wave."

"And that matters why?" Shadow huffed. "Capes should get time off. Even open Capes like you guys. Just go out like that, if you want. Who's actually gonna care?"

"That's… a good point." Amy nodded slowly. "Hey, Vicky, some silly movie, PHO and then a walk sound ok to you?"

"Well, a walk might be alright for _you_ , but _I_ have no need for such exhaustive activities." Vicky replied, mock-haughtily. "I'll fly instead."

"That's fine too." Shadow agreed. "Hey, if we aim for lunch, maybe we could meet with Eon and Swarm and go to that Thai place I want to try."

"Are Swarm and Eon out?"

"No idea, Eon was still drowsing when I left, but if I asked they'd probably be willing to meet up for that and maybe a bit more of a wander around." Shadow shrugged, lifting her bag from the floor. She slipped her phone out of the side pocket before pulling the ice cream tub out and popping it open.

Vicky immediately stole it from her, digging in with the one spoon and handing another to Amy. Shadow meanwhile sent her team leader a text, then stole the third spoon and took her own scoop.

A reply came back quickly, just as Amy was slipping off the couch and over to the film case next to the TV, and Shadow glanced over it with a muffled laugh.

Swallowing the ice cream, she explained, "Eon and Swarm are already out, apparently. Eon was bored, called Swarm to see if she fancied going for a wander around the city in costume just for the fun of it, Swarm said yes. They're fine for meeting up for lunch if you are, they were apparently thinking about going to the Thai place but didn't want to go without me."

"Then that sounds like a plan." Vicky smiled widely. "I like that Thai place."

"The one downtown?" Amy asked. Shadow nodded. "Yeah, that place is great."

"I'll tell them we'll meet them there, then. About one sound good?" Both girls looked at the time.

"That gives us three hours. Plenty of time for a movie, some giggling at PHO, and still getting there even if we don't want to hurry." Amy easily agreed. "Now, _How to Train your Dragon_? It came out before Christmas, Shadow, so I don't know if you've seen it yet…"

"I haven't." She confirmed.

Twenty minutes later she was staring avidly at the TV, absently sharing the ice cream, eyes sparkling.

* * *

"There they are." Amy pointed, carefully adjusting her grip on Shadow as she did.

"I see them." Vicky slowly descended from the air, landing just beside the other two members of Team Inari with a smile. "Hi, Eon, Swarm."

"Hello, Glory Girl." Eon greeted, as she put Amy on her feet.

"You can call me Vicky, you know." She laughed, as Amy let Shadow down onto the ground as well. The Vulpix stumbled a little as she regained her balance, then trotted over to her team. "Besides, this isn't anything Cape-y, just all of us ending up for lunch in the same place." Eon laughed as well.

"I suppose so, Vicky." He looked down at his second. "Have fun, pix?"

"So much." She grinned widely in return, eyes sparkling again. "We watched a movie, it was _so cool_ , Eon. You _need_ to see it. So many dragons…"

"Is that the new one that came about before Christmas?" Swarm asked Amy, who nodded. "I haven't seen that yet either, actually. Never got around to it."

"You _need_ to, Swarm." Shadow told her. Gently, Eon placed a paw over Shadow's mouth, making her look up at him irately.

"Maybe we should all go inside and get food before you start rambling about the dragon movie?" He suggested calmly, making her sag.

"Are they ok with you eating in costume here, Swarm?" Amy checked.

"Yeah, we asked just before you got here. Just leave the bugs outside." She nodded. "Which I've already done, so we can go in."

Their entry caused a bit of a stir with the people already in there- apparently while they'd noticed Eon enter and speak to the counter earlier, they hadn't been expecting the entirety of Team Inari plus some of New Wave to show up- the people currently on the counter were rather calm as the group of Capes placed their orders, found a table, and sat down.

Shadow stared at Swarm for a few moments, her tails waving, then nodded. "Check that for me, please, Amy?" The healer looked at the insect controller, frowning.

"That's the same illusion you used last time, isn't it?" She queried. "Just set up for only half of her face instead?"

"Yeah." Swarm nodded, the static-like effect moving with her. "We can't completely deny PHO of all the pictures of us being here, can we?" Vicky laughed.

"That's nice of you."

A few seconds later, Shadow again began rambling about the movie they'd just watched. This time, Eon let her, merely rolling his eyes at the others before settling back to listen. Her rant- there wasn't really much else to call it, given that no-one else got a word in edgeways the entire time- only came to a halt when the food arrived, mostly became Swarm jumped in to ask a question before she could get started up again.

"Say, Vicky, do you happen to know where Parian's set up her shop?" Swarm asked, making the Brute look at her in surprise.

"Ah, yeah. It's just downtown, I think?" Vicky replied. "It's pretty hard to miss, though, given that she tends to have little dolls scattered around the place, in the windows and stuff. Why, thinking about a costume redesign or something already?"

"Not really. I'm making a spare one, as a backup in case something goes really wrong and I need more time to repair it." She very carefully did _not_ look down at her left arm, where her costume still held a few marks from the Leviathan attack. "But I was actually just curious about talking to her, plus I know Shadow wants to meet her."

"You said she uses giant teddies." Shadow snarked. "Of _course_ I'd like to meet her. That sounds awesome."

"…Pix, how much of a sugar rush are you on, right now?" Eon asked suspiciously.

"Not much!"

"Kinda a lot of one." Amy overruled, one hand on Shadow's back.

"Oh, joy." Eon sighed. "I'm sure this'll be fun, won't it."

"I'm always fun."

"Depends on your definition of fun, pix."

The group all chuckled, breaking up the snarking match between the two, and the conversation drifted to other things.

* * *

Sarah glanced down at the phone in her hand, then the number sitting on the table next to her. Sighing, and knowing that she'd probably put it off for long enough by this point, given that it'd been nearly a week, and with the low amount of damage that'd been done during Leviathan there wasn't much of a chance that they'd still be doing damage control up there, she dialled the number.

" _This is Miss Militia."_ The Cape on the other end of the phone answered.

"Hello, Miss Militia, this is Lady Photon." Sarah said. "I was hoping you'd have a moment to talk."

" _Certainly, Lady Photon."_ Miss Militia sounded surprised. " _What seems to be the problem?"_

"I'm actually calling you on the behalf of Team Inari, today." She explained. "In the aftermath of the attack on Sunday, Amy had a rather curious idea about a possible use of Shadow's powers. The girl herself is uncertain as to whether or not it would work, but she's happy to test it, especially given the possibility for helping others. I offered to call you for her, since New Wave is a rather more established team than Inari is."

" _Quite. What exactly was this idea of Panacea's about?"_

"Amy thinks, and after hearing a description of how her power works from Shadow I have to agree, that it's possible that Shadow's healing might be able to remove Master effects."

There was a rather long silence on the other end of the line.

" _I beg your pardon, Lady Photon, I fear I may have misheard."_ She came back faintly.

"It's possible that Shadow might be able to remove Master effects using her power." Sarah repeated, grinning widely.

" _I see."_ There was another long silence. " _If that were truly the case, that could have a drastic effect on a large number of things."_

"Hence why Shadow is willing, and indeed rather eager, to find a way to test that out." She told her. "She clearly knows quite a lot about the state of the world, and she wants to help. I believe clearing out the containment zones was mentioned in passing to Amy more than once."

" _What, in your opinion, would she want to test it on?"_

"She's already admitted to being uncertain as to what sort of Master powers she can affect, given that her powers don't stop Swarm's from working, but she also thinks it's possible that that's just because she considers herself to be on the same team, thus stopping any of the possible negative side effects," Sarah reported, mentally thanking Vicky for that little titbit, "So access to another Master who controls minions, some kind of mental Master, and perhaps one that affects a person physically as well, like a puppeteer-style Master. That covers most of it, and would give quite a lot of information as well."

" _Thank you for your call, Lady Photon."_ Miss Militia replied, after another moment of quiet. " _I'll have to speak to the Director about this, and most likely we'll end up calling in a few favours from other PRT departments to try getting our hands on some people who're willing to help, but just having the possibility would be incredible."_ She paused again. " _Would it be alright if I called you again once we have everything set up? We seem to be lacking in a contact number for Team Inari in general, let alone Shadow, and I don't think sending the Wards about in the hopes of them running into her would work very well."_

"You could always send them a message on PHO." Sarah suggested flippantly. "But calling me back would be fine, thank you. I'll make sure the message gets passed to Shadow when it's all set up."

" _I don't think PHO would be the best way of securely sending information."_ She laughed. " _Thank you, Lady Photon. It seems rather likely that I'll be calling you back quite soon."_

"I'll be waiting." She promised, before hanging up. Placing her phone in her pocket and the number in the safe, she left the room and headed for her family, feeling like there'd been a job well done.

* * *

Hannah stared at her phone for a few seconds, thinking hard, then dialled a new number.

"Hello, Director." She greeted, when it was picked up. "I've just been given some information that I feel you might find _very_ interesting…"

* * *

 **AN: Still a bit more setup, but trust me, things are getting to happen. Couple of reviews to answer, too...**

 **Frisbeeg; that's a shame, there was quite a bit important there. Perhaps the PHO stuff didn't need to be there, but at the same time I find them useful. They break up the pace a bit, giving you a moment to breathe in a way that doesn't mean just writing a filler chapter, and they're nice to show how the people in the world are reacting to a given thing. Last chapter was also used to show a bit more of the differences in the world, too. They're also a better way- personally, that is- of skipping time without just jumping over everything. Chapter 12 was like that; I could talk about some of the things happening without having to just write them, but still tell about it.**

 **Stormingnight; I have no idea, should be fixed now though. Might've been a mistake on the part of an update; I edited some of the chapter, had no internet, and had a friend update. Maybe they assumed I meant chapter 19, which was chapter 16, rather than chapter 22, which was chapter 19.**

 **Also, so far, I'm loving the guesses on the end of chapter 19. Current favourite comes from SV, though... which is why you're getting this little thing at the end.**

* * *

 **Omake; It's... what?!**

 **Inspiration courtesy of Paegan, on SufficientVelocity.**

"Alright people, talk to me." Piggot demanded, storming into the heavily shielded observation deck. "What am I looking at here?"

The object in question was a large crystalline structure, a very light blue colour, that was sitting in the centre of the high security hazard lab below. Due to its strange properties, the only things working on it were drones, provided by Dragon as the person who'd found it for them and identified it as a possible problem, and being remotely controlled by her and Armsmaster as they dissected the thing and put it in for tests, directed in turn by the veritable horde of scientists and other lab techs who had been called in to try and figure out what it was.

The nearest tech, Jenkins according to his tag, turned to her from the computer readout he was examining. "As far as we can tell, Director, the crystal substance is incredibly tough; even Armsmaster's Tinkertech can barely make a dent in it, but we've managed to run some tests on the small shavings we've gotten. It's definitely some kind of crystal, though we're still not certain exactly _what_ , since the structure of the thing doesn't match up to anything we've tried it against so far, and neither does the density, the durability, anything like that. A complete mystery substance, though it'd be incredible as a defensive material if it wasn't for the... side effects... it has."

"Yes, yes, all well and good, but _what is it_?" Piggot snapped. "The damn thing was obviously left behind by Leviathan, and I want to know if it's some kind if weird trap the Simurgh's somehow managed to set up, or if it's something we can use."

The monitor behind them beeped, and Jenkins looked back to read the report that had just come up- well, she assumed it was a report. With all the technobable in there it could've been a pizza order for all she knew.

"Oh, that's interesting..." Jenkins muttered. "It seems to be some kind of remnant waste produced from the creature."

The Director's brain screeched to a halt, then started up again after a few moments of confused protest.

"I... excuse me?" She snapped. "Are you telling me that _that_ ," she waved down at the crystal, still being slowly taken apart, "Is basically _Endbringer shit_?!"

"It... looks like it, Ma'am." He agreed nervously. "The... the techs are still doing work on it, but that looks to be the most accurate result."

He was slowly edging away.

Piggot spent another few minutes staring blankly at the blue crystal, then very deliberately turned around and started banging her head against the wall.

"Maybe they'll find out that they were wrong, Ma'am?" Jenkins tried.

"God I hope so." She murmured acidicly. "Because being known as the Director who arranged for testing on _Endbringer shit_ is not something I really want added to my accolades."

* * *

 **AN: Have fun, seeya around!**


	24. Chapter 21

**A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 21.**

 **Business, planning, and surprise.**

* * *

 **May 21st, 2011. Saturday.**

"So how was yesterday, Taylor?" Danny asked, frying eggs.

Taylor, face down on the table and half asleep, shrugged. "Fun, I guess." She mumbled, with a yawn. "Might've been out for a bit too long, thinking about it, but the food was nice, Vicky and Amy seemed to be doing ok, and there wasn't really much going on. Signed a few autographs, which was weird."

"I'd've thought you'd be more used to it by now." He commented. She shrugged again, pushing herself up and leaning on her hands.

"I mean, I kind of am, but it's still weird. Inari tends to work at night, since I'm at school and all. Don't want too many days off, but also don't want to set a pattern of me being off when Swarm's out and about, in case people draw the wrong conclusions. But because of that the main people we see are criminals causing trouble, shopkeepers and random mugging victims. Don't tend to end up signing much then. Since Leviathan, though, we've been out in the daylight a lot more." She grinned wanly. "I guess having Glory Girl and Panacea eating with us didn't help on the attention side."

"Not to mention to sparkly _Kyuubi_ , the kitsune on a sugar high, and the slightly menacing bug controller?" Danny said dryly. Taylor chuckled.

"I guess. Was still strange, though. Especially since they left us alone while eating, aside from taking pictures, but the second we were outside the place we got swarmed by people wanting us to sign stuff."

"I also saw that Parian got some rather interesting visitors." He led, poking at the eggs for a moment. Taylor nodded again.

"Yeah, I asked Vicky if she happened to know where Parian's store was, since all I could find online was ' _downtown'_ , then Inari decided to drop in after we ate." She smirked, remembering how surprised the doll Cape had been at seeing them show up at her doorstep. "I'd needed to talk to her anyway, and she seemed nice, though a bit overwhelmed."

"I think that having you three show up unannounced would be enough to overwhelm anyone." Taylor laughed.

"Probably, yeah. I feel kinda bad, but at the same time I was a really good opportunity for both of us, and she seemed really, _really_ enthusiastic once we explained why we were there and I made my offer."

* * *

"Hello there Parian," Eon greeted, as the Cape appeared from the back of the shop. "A pleasure to meet you, I've heard quite a bit about what you do here. It's rather nice to meet a Cape that doesn't care for violence."

"Ah… nice to meet you too." She stumbled, clearly staring at them from behind the mask. Swarm smiled a little behind her own, outwardly examining a rather nice dress that was standing on a mannequin near the door. Shadow's attention, meanwhile, had been quickly captured by a particularly sparkly bag, which she was curiously circling and admiring. "Eon, right? Of Team Inari."

"That's me." He nodded. "Along with my second, Shadow, and Swarm."

"Hey there!" Shadow called, looking up to wave. Swarm turned around fully, giving up the pretence of examining the dress- though it _was_ a nice dress, she'd probably never wear it, it wouldn't really work if she brought it as Swarm, and Taylor had nowhere near enough money to afford it- and nodded to her.

"So, what brings you here?" Parian asked, apparently trying to move back to more familiar ground. "I wouldn't think either of you need a costume, and Swarm apparently made her own according to rumours."

"Correct, but it is actually Swarm that wanted to speak to you." Eon replied, waving a tail at her. "Shadow and I are primarily just here as an escort, since we were all together already."

"I… see." Parian turned to look at her, so she made her way closer to the counter while Eon dropped back to start looking around as well- something he'd been denied the chance at doing at first, being the team leader. "So, what did you need, Swarm?"

"Actually, it's more of an offer for _you_ , rather than a request from me." She grinned widely, directing the spiders in her bag to start bringing out the bit of spider silk she'd brought for the demonstration. "I was curious if you'd be interested in a little business idea I and my friends came up with…"

* * *

"Honestly, Dad, she looked like she was about to start dancing with joy." Taylor laughed, now holding a coffee and rather more awake. "She was actually bouncing on the spot, it was so funny."

"It does sound like it would've been amusing." He admitted, pushing the eggs out of the frying pan and onto some toast. The bacon joined them a minute later, then the two plates made their way over to the table. "Do you think you can manage it, though?"

"Probably, yeah." She nodded, taking hers from him. "I can set the spiders to keep weaving even while I'm away, and the Den has a _lot_ of spiders there now. I set them to work and they just spin, every time I drop by the Den I feed them and take the bits down to store them, and there's still the ones upstairs too. Not as many there, and I might move them over to the Den eventually, but I figured it'd be a good idea to keep some separate in case something happens."

"A good call, I think." Danny agreed, wincing slightly at the memory of the boxes in his daughter's room. "And I gather you're doing this cheap?"

"A hell of a lot cheaper than it'd normally be for spider silk. I looked it up, and really don't see why it needs to be so expensive. Spiders don't need paying, after all."

"It's the economics of the thing." He shrugged. "But good on you, Taylor. A nice, legitimate way to make money."

"Hey, stealing from the gangs is legitimate!" She remarked, mocking offence. "Not exactly _legal_ , I suppose, but it's not like they got most of it through legal means anyway."

"I suppose that's true." Danny chuckled, leaning over to ruffle her hair. "And the less money the gangs have to work with the better. Even if it is mainly the Merchants."

"Attacking the Empire would just give the Nazis a reason to label us as ABB sympathisers, especially given Shadow and Eon's appearances, and there's now our truce with Lung, too." Taylor brushed his hand away. "Not that I really mind that we're only targeting the Merchants. They're a major problem, and none of us like them. Lung we can put up with, he has some honour and he's so scared of the idea of a _Kyuubi_ running around that I don't see him being a problem. The Empire's a bit harder, but they seem to be avoiding targeting us as well, which is nice, and hopefully it'll stay that way if we avoid to obviously going after them."

"Cape work. Almost as bad as politics, but with more threat of injury." He said dryly. Taylor laughed.

"That seems to be the basic situation, yeah. It sucks, but we're managing. Even if we don't make much of a difference on the whole, we're getting to be a bit of a pain for the Merchants, which is always good."

"As long as they don't get annoyed with it and decide to come after you to teach you a lesson."

"We're actually surprised it hasn't happened yet." Taylor admitted, poking at her half-eaten eggs. "Eon and Shadow have some ideas for plans, based on the stuff we've found online about the Merchants, but nothing's concrete. If they do decide to come after us, though, we'll be able to fight back, at least until the Protectorate or someone shows up to give us a hand." She smiled thinly. "Maybe even Lung, given how he's been about us."

"Ah yes, the rage dragon of Brockton Bay showing up to help Team Inari. _That_ won't catch some attention at all." Taylor shrugged.

"If it does, so be it. Rather be mostly alright because Lung showed up and have to explain _why_ Lung showed up than have something go wrong and people get hurt."

"Definitely."

* * *

"…And I think that's the last of that." Director Emily Piggot sighed, making a note in her pad. "Everything's recovering well in the city, actually _faster_ than the Thinkers projected, which is nice. Work on the memorial's already begun, relief's going fine… is there anything else anyone wants to bring up?"

"I have something, Director." Hannah aired, looking up from her own notepad for a moment before flipping backwards a few pages. "I had a call from Lady Photon yesterday…"

"Ah. _That_." Emily sighed, as a number of other Capes in the room winced. Lady Photon calling wasn't normally a good thing, since she was the leader of an independent hero team. "Right. I _would_ like to get everyone's opinions on it, at least, before I go taking this up to the Chief Director."

This made everyone sit up- even Ethan, who'd been sitting quietly in his chair the entire meeting. This normally wouldn't be a bad thing, except for the depressed aura he was radiating and the miserable looks he kept shooting the chair to his left, where Alice normally sat. Something that would need to go to the Chief Director was something _everyone_ wanted to hear about.

"Thank you, Director." Hannah nodded. "I had a call from Lady Photon yesterday. She was actually calling on behalf of Team Inari, because Panacea had an idea last Sunday after the attack. From descriptions of her power given to her during their healing stint, along with some information picked up during their hospital visits, Panacea managed to conclude that Shadow's form of healing also has a mental component, one focused on healing mental disabilities of a certain severity. While she's uncertain _exactly_ what it would work on, and Shadow admits to having never tested it before, Panacea thinks it's focused on rebalancing the chemical makeup of the brain, through unknown means."

Hannah had spent a lot of time the night before communicating with Lady Photon after the initial phone call, gathering as much information on the theory Panacea had come up with as possible. Panacea had also spoken to Shadow about what they were telling the PRT, given that it was her power, and in return Lady Photon had forwarded a paragraph, written by Shadow on Panacea's phone, that explained in detail how her power worked, followed by another one written by Panacea that shed some light on what she saw it doing.

"Interesting…" Robin hummed, leaning on the table slightly.

"Panacea believes that it's possible that it would remove Master effects."

The room went completely silent, all of them staring at her. Emily smirked slightly, knowing that _her_ first reaction had been rather similar.

"Swarm's power is a Master effect." Rory pointed out, sounding stunned.

"Shadow calls it the badge rule." Hannah sighed. "Apparently it got its nickname from the badges they wear that denote them as being on the same team. As long as she mentally compartmentalises them as on her team, none of the negative effects of her abilities will touch them. In her message, she mentioned that she could attempt to use her sleeping ability on one of her team mates, and it would only work if she really wanted it too. If she'd been trying to use it on an enemy and her team mate was used as a shield, it wouldn't affect them. Shadow believes this is the same thing; her healing power only heals Swarm, because they're on the same side, but it doesn't affect her ability to control insects for the same reason."

"Wait, but if it only works on her team mates, but her team mate with a Master power isn't affected by the anti-Master thing, then how would it work otherwise?"

Hannah shrugged. "Shadow admits that she's unsure, hence the offer. Lady Photon, on behalf of Team Inari, is requesting a specific power testing, using a few different Masters and a volunteer or two, to see exactly how her power can be made to react to Master effects."

"Wait, hang on." Shawn, apparently coming back from wherever he'd been for a moment, interrupted. "If Shadow can decide who's on her team, that means she can restrict her healing when she does it, right?" He waited for Hannah to nod before he continued, "Would that mean she'd be able to stand right on a battlefield and heal everyone but the opponents?"

"Probably, yes." Hannah nodded again. "But there'd also always be the risk of her being knocked out or killed if that happened, to stop her from doing that. Additionally it's apparently quite the mental task to keep everything like that lined up, because if there's too many she might slip and accidentally heal an enemy. It's easier for her to define a room and heal everyone in that room, a task which she normally uses her illusions for."

"I see."

"Anyway," Emily butted in, before anyone else could; Colin, in particular, looked worryingly curious about the idea. "What do you all think? In order to get the Masters together we'd need to call in rather a few favours from other branches, so I think it's better off going straight to the Chief Director for this one instead."

"I agree." Robin stated firmly. "This could be an incredible chance to heal hundreds of people, hell it could probably deconstruct the containment zones built around Simurgh attacks. The bigger question would be why the hell _wouldn't_ we want to?" There was seconding all around the table, even from Ethan, still sitting miserably in his own little world.

Colin frowned. "Is it likely to work, do you think? I am… unsettled by the idea that we are just supposed to expose some people to Masters and hope that Shadow's power works."

"That's why it would be our _own_ Master class Capes, and all be done in a test environment here." Emily reiterated. "Shadow would only be here to use her healing power on those volunteers, and if everything works as Panacea hopes it will, then it will be organised with the Chief Director for Shadow, and possibly the rest of Team Inari depending on whether or not Eon is found to be able to do it or if they merely wish to show up as her bodyguards- because by _that_ point it feels likely that Alexandria herself might choose to escort them around, and they could probably put any condition in the world on her healing and the public would pressure to work with them- for them to travel to the different containment zones around the world to remove the Master effects left there."

 _Assuming they can, of course._ Emily mused silently, as Colin acquiesced. _There's no guarantee that Shadow being able to heal human Master's effects means that she'll be able to remove the Simurgh's ones. But even being able to fix humans would be a good start, if nothing else._ "Right." She said aloud. "I'll send a message to the Chief Director about this but, pending that acceptance, Hannah, get ready to send Lady Photon a message for Team Inari, with a date and time for their appointment with the PRT for… put it down as power testing, I suppose."

"Will do, Director." Hannah made a note in her pad- even though they all knew she didn't need to- and looked up.

Emily glanced around. "I don't suppose there's anything else?" She held up a hand when Colin opened his mouth. " _Not_ to do with that, Colin. We'll speak of that another time." He made a little grumbling sound, nodding and sitting back again. She waited a few more seconds, then finished, "No? Then meeting over, everyone can go back to whatever they were doing before this started, I'm off to send that message up the chain."

Heaving herself out of the chair, she stomped towards the door, planning on heading straight back to her office to draft up a message to the Chief Director, asking for assistance from some of the other branches to test this theory out.

* * *

Rebecca nodded to her secretary as she headed back into her office, casually opened the door, and pretended that she wasn't cursing out David with every breath she took. The break for lunch hadn't managed to calm her down any, like she'd hoped; instead she'd ended up spending entire time stewing on the conversation trying to figure out what the hell had happened with the idiot.

Admittedly, that wasn't really hard to figure out; he was pissed because Shadow had somehow managed to do more damage to Leviathan than anything they'd tried _ever_ on the damn thing, but that made David's irritation _more_ confusing in some ways. The damn Endbringer had been driven off incredibly quickly, and with very little damage compared to what was normally expected of the Island-Sinker, yet for some reason this seemed to make him more annoyed. To the point where she'd just spent almost an hour arguing with him, with the help of Paul, trying to stop him from following through with the idea that they needed to force Shadow to talk to figure out how she was so powerful.

Absently she winced, rubbing at the bandage under her sleeve, where her arm still stung from taking a large impact from the lightning strike. Admittedly Rebecca would _love_ to interview Shadow about her powers, if only to figure out how the hell they'd managed to injure _her_ , but force was in no way the best method of doing it. The little kitsune creature had driven off an _Endbringer_ with ease, her team leader was a _Kyuubi_ and thus most likely stronger, given that he had control over her, and Rebecca _really_ didn't want to see what they might do if they decided the Triumvirate were being hostile towards them.

No, what they needed was a nice, calm reason to bring them in and ask a few questions about how their powers worked, preferably without giving away the fact that they'd managed to injure Alexandria in the process.

Sitting forward in her chair with a groan, Rebecca tried to pretend that David wasn't being a strange idiot and that she could instead get on with some of the work that always came in the aftermath of an Endbringer fight.

Then she noticed the folded piece of paper on her desk.

She sighed, picking it up and opening it, hoping that it wouldn't be something to add to her problems-

 _Message incoming from Brockton Bay. Agree, and do whatever's necessary to make it happen. Everything else is up to you._

Staring blankly at Contessa's message slash demand, Rebecca gave up, resting her face against her palms and watched the darkness for a while. The nice, calm darkness that wasn't giving her cryptic hints, more work, or a stress headache.

When, about two minutes later, her computer pinged with a high priority message, she glared at the monitor for a moment before opening the message.

Then she leaned back again, grinning and giggling slightly madly. _Sometimes things just drop into your lap, I suppose._ She read the email again, reaching for a pen and pad to make notes on while she did.

"Three Masters, at minimum, we might want to try and find more than that just in case, and a couple of volunteers for the human Masters… Piggot can set up a lot of this, thank god, but I might as well smooth the process out a bit…" Rebecca muttered to herself, flicking to another window as she tried to remember how many Master class Parahumans the PRT had access to, and whether the Directors would be willing to give them up for a day or so for power testing purposes.

Possibly, if David had stopped being an idiot by then, she could bring him along and get him to use some of his Master powers as well, which would make it a little easier to set everything up.

At least she wasn't irritated anymore.

* * *

Sabah hummed gently to herself as she wandered around her workshop, the remains of her last project left on the table as she directed one of her larger gorillas to move the mannequin with the dress into the side room, where it would be out of the way until it was picked up. Cleanup would be done in a few minutes, once she'd had a moment to catch her breath and decide which project she would move onto next.

She had quite a few at the moment, which was nice. A couple of them were from out-of-town, which she would be sending out for delivery instead, the payment being made to the bank account she'd managed to get set up for her Cape business.

 _That_ had been an incredible pain in the ass to get sorted, mostly because it was being done under her Cape identity, and most banks didn't like that, but she'd managed it in the end only a few weeks ago, just a bit before Leviathan.

Thinking about the Endbringer attack just a week before made Sabah sigh, looking around. She'd gotten incredibly lucky that her shop had avoided damage almost entirely, the other buildings around the area blocking a lot of the wave and the sealing she had keeping most of the rest away. Her finished orders had been fine, all far back in the shop and on high shelves, her fabrics had been fine, and the examples of her work that were on display in the front had only been somewhat damp where the wave had leaked in.

The lack of damage _altogether_ was practically a miracle, given that it was Leviathan. Sure, Behemoth was well known for wrecking cities, but Leviathan had sunk _islands_ before. Getting out of the attack mostly just bruised and scratched- in terms of destroyed buildings and that- was incredible.

As Parian she hadn't been able to contribute much to the rebuilding effort that was going on, unlike some Capes, but she'd still been sure to show up around and do what she could. Her gorillas had been good at that, moving things about that were too heavy to be done alone normally, and once she'd had one holding up a significant amount of building to let the workers get out when a support of some kind had broken and caused the two floors above to almost collapse in- she'd also used her animals to complete the rest of the work under the direction of the foreman, making sure that it would be safe for the workers to go back in and finish it properly- but compared to some of the things going around on PHO at the moment it seemed like very little. Glory Girl, for example, had been very visible, jetting this way and that to help out anyone she saw that seemed to be having even a little trouble; from carrying cement across the road to helping move supplies to a shelter that was out of reach because the road was damaged and the van couldn't get around it, to giving an elderly lady some help getting home with her shopping when the building work had caused her trouble.

Or Team Inari, who'd been popping up a lot as well, just wandering the streets to keep the peace or using their telekinesis to lift things into place for the builders to use. Admittedly Swarm had seemed a little left out, but her powers weren't exactly very well suited to this sort of thing. She could probably make a killing clearing out infestations, but bugs weren't very good at building massive structures that humans could use.

Rather like fabric, she supposed.

Thinking about Team Inari made Sabah smile slightly, glancing over to the patch of spider silk she'd been given the day before when the three had suddenly dropped by. It was about a foot square, and she'd already poked at it a bit with her power, testing how it worked. It was definitely the sort of stuff she'd like to work with, _especially_ with how cheap Swarm was willing to sell it, though she might want to try layering them to make it thicker when she worked with it. It would take a lot of silk, and probably fabric layers for some designs, but it would be _very_ worth it.

Reaching out, Sabah lifted the square from its place on the shelf, carefully pulling and flexing it again, before replacing it and going over to the safe where she kept her ' _floating'_ cash, for situations where she needed to give change- because some customers liked paying up front- or when she needed money and didn't have time to go to the bank.

Pulling a few hundred from the safe, she slipped it into one of the envelopes on the same shelf as the safe, then grabbed a pen from her table and noted on the front, ' _First payment for spider silk, to Swarm.'_ That done, she replaced everything, closed the safe, and went back to thumbing through her different orders, wondering if any of them would be willing to pay a _slight_ premium for their outfit to be made of spider silk instead, dyed whatever colour they wanted.

* * *

Rebecca leaned back slightly, unable to keep herself from staring at her monitor in mild shock, and reread the email again.

"Everyone." She murmured to herself. "Literally _everyone_ has no issues at all."

She'd gone through the list of Master-class Capes that the PRT had access to, some Protectorate and some Wards, and made a list of her own out of the Directors that she felt were most likely to agree fairly easily to her request. The emails had all been sent out separately, asking so-and-so Director if this Cape or that one would be available on Tuesday of this week to help with a power testing that would be occurring in Brockton Bay that day. Not expecting responses for a little while, given the time zones, she'd moved on to some other work, mostly related to the Endbringer attack from the previous Sunday.

When the first email came back, Rebecca had mentally prepared herself for a long inquiry into why the Capes were needed, and who was being tested, and why she was asking instead of Director Piggot- only to open it and find that the Protectorate Cape she'd requested, an animal Master focused on snakes, would be available to help with that power testing, and they'd send him along on a transport aiming to arrive about an hour before.

She'd actually spent a few minutes staring at the email before sending a reply thanking them for their help, then dropped back in her chair and stared into the darkness of her hands again, trying to figure out why on earth she hadn't had to do anything more.

The next two emails, for a minion Master that controlled a pair of puppets, and a human Master with the ability to slightly influence people into moving certain ways, had been just as easy, but the next one- another human Master, this one with emotional effects that boosted the negative emotions of a target- came with the difficulties that she had been expecting.

Admittedly she hadn't been the Director to come across so strongly, but the requests for clarification had all been there. Who was being tested, why was she contacting him instead of Director Piggot, why did they need a human Master specifically… she'd sent back a response, half expecting to need to argue the point further in a little while, only for the next email to be one informing her that the Cape in question would be flying out on a transport to arrive a few hours ahead of time, barring any delays, and that they hoped that would help.

Rebecca wasn't sure if it was the fact that Panacea had been mentioned in the email, as the one who came up with the theory, or if word of Shadow's part in Leviathan had spread that far already despite the standard two week silence about the attack results, but whatever it was had clearly changed that Director's mind quite quickly.

One of the Wards she'd asked about had been refused, on the grounds of parents refusing to send their child to a place that, a) was known for being a hotbed of crime, and b) had just been attacked by an Endbringer- ignoring the fact that the city was recovering well and that the entire place had enforced its own Endbringer Truce throughout the rebuilding, though to be fair the reputation of the place _was_ fairly well earned- but one of the other animal Masters had been allowed through, so Rebecca hadn't bothered to chase up someone else.

 _Two animal Masters, one minion controller, two human Masters, someone that animates shoelaces, and a projector… this is going ridiculously well._ Rebecca mused to herself. _Literally no-one at all has any trouble with moving these Masters to Brockton Bay for power testing. I mean, I suppose curiosity could be playing a part in it, but seriously, one person wanted more information and was fine with it as soon as they got it, and only person to refuse is because of their parents._ She shook her head, leaning forward again and compiling the list of Cape names, regions and Directors to send back to Director Piggot, as well as what time to be expecting each of the Capes.

Once that was done and sent, Rebecca locked up her computer, stood and stretched, before heading out of the door in search of food and coffee.

At least this was easier than trying to deal with David again.

* * *

Emily glanced over at the sound of a high-priority email coming through, opening it with half a thought. She grinned victoriously a minute later, reaching across her desk for her phone.

" _Miss Militia speaking."_

"Send a message to Lady Photon for Team Inari, Shadow's power testing is down for three pm on Tuesday." Emily instructed, making a note on her calendar. "Also put out word that we're looking for a couple of troopers willing to be put under a Master effect temporarily for the sake of testing out a possible Master removing power. Perhaps four people, two for each of the human Master's that're being shipped out to us."

" _Ah- yes, Director."_ Hannah replied, sounding vaguely startled. The line went dead just after, and Emily leaned back in her chair with a smile.

Now _this_ was looking good.

* * *

Amy yawned, looking at her phone as it pinged with a message. She and Vicky were lounging about on the couch, the TV playing some random terrible movie they'd found as background noise, the flying Brute scrolling through PHO while Amy read. Folding down the corner of the page she was on slightly to make a temporary bookmark, she closed it with one hand and unlocked her phone with the other.

Seeing that it was a message from Aunt Sarah, she raised an eyebrow and scanned over it, then read back more deeply with her eyes wide.

"Vicky, I need to borrow your phone for a minute." She half-demanding, not moving her gaze from the screen.

"Why?" Her sister audibly raised an eyebrow down at her. "You've got your phone."

"Yeah, but I need to call Shadow and I need to keep this message on the screen at the same time, and it's easier to just nick your phone."

"Ok, but I better find out what this is about." The girl demanded, placing her phone in Amy's empty hand.

"You will in a minute, trust me." Amy promised, checking and dialling the number before waiting.

" _He-llo, this is Shadow speaking."_ The peppy voice of the small fox announced.

Amy chuckled. "Hi Shadow, it's Amy."

" _Oh, Amy! What's up, do you two need me to come round again?"_ She could vaguely hear the sound of shuffling in the background, like someone was running about collecting things.

"No, no, we're ok, Shadow." She assured. "I'm just calling because I got a text from Aunt Sarah a minute ago."

" _Oh?"_

"Yup. Make sure your afternoon's clear on Tuesday, because you've got an appointment with the PRT for power testing." Amy explained. "Three o'clock in the afternoon."

The other end of the line went quiet, while Vicky stared at her.

"Shadow?"

" _Hello, Amy."_ Eon's deeper voice came over the speaker. " _Sorry about Shadow, she's currently running around in very enthusiastic circles."_ Amy laughed loudly.

"Fair enough. Anyway, Shadow's got her appointment at three on Tuesday afternoon, I've been asked to come along because I'm a healer, and the entirety of Team Inari's also invited, either to let you play bodyguard because you're independents, or in the hopes that you can do it too, Eon."

" _I can, but it's rather more limited than Shadow's is."_ He replied. " _I've not been doing it for nearly as long as Shadow has, I only started practising a little before Leviathan attacked, she's been doing it for years. I get two, maybe three uses at a push, then there's no way I'm doing it or pretty much anything else again. Shadow gets a lot more out of it, plus the restoration works better on her because of that. Even still, I'll be there. Swarm probably will as well, I'll ask her in a little while."_

"Excellent. I'll tell Aunt Sarah to tell the PRT that, then." Amy smiled.

" _Thank you, Amy. We'll see you on Tuesday, then. If not sooner."_

"We'll be in touch." She promised, hanging up. Turning back to Vicky, she handed the phone back to her, and continued, "So I've got an appointment to make on Tuesday, at three in the afternoon. Mind giving me a lift, Vicky?"

"Sure thing, Ames." Vicky nodded, after a moment. Both of them laughed a little, then went back to what they'd been doing, Amy sending her reply to Aunt Sarah before picking up her book again.

* * *

 **AN: I feel mildly bad for Rebecca in this chapter.**

 **Not much, though.**

 **Anyway, the time for things to happen approaches, much closer too! Hopefully you're not getting too fed up with me here, I promise things are going to start up very soon.**


	25. Chapter 22

**A Shadow, an Eon, and a Worm 22.**

 **Gift, meeting, and acknowledgement.**

* * *

 **May 22nd, 2011. Sunday.**

"Seeya later, Dad!" Taylor called, as she ran out of the back door, a backpack over one shoulder.

"Goodbye, Taylor!" Danny replied, before the door slammed closed. He chuckled slightly, lifting the coffee mug to his lips and taking a sip before heading for the front room, planning on spending his Sunday relaxing with a book until his daughter and her team came over for the afternoon.

He was rather glad that Eon was willing to keep him in the loop about their Cape activities, and even more pleased that he wanted to ask for his advice. While Danny might not be much use when it came to actual Cape stuff, he knew politics quite well, and was happy to use that experience to help make sure his daughter's team didn't get into trouble with the authorities over any incidents. Especially because, according to rumours, the PRT was often rather desperate to grab powerful Capes for their own team.

Although from the message Eon had sent Taylor last night, the PRT currently seemed more interested in forming some kind of alliance with Inari, rather than forcing them into a contract in the Wards to try and use their power and current popularity.

It said an awful lot about how the PRT worked that that was his opinion of them, he supposed. But it was known to happen in other places, and there were rumours that it'd happened before in the Bay, too, though he couldn't remember what the context of it was. It had only been a vague reference about six months ago at the office, and he hadn't been listening all that hard.

He was also very glad that Team Inari had been making connections to other Capes in the bay. Even if one of them was Lung… which might well have been a better thing, in some ways. He couldn't see any of the heroes helping them get their Threat Report out of the PRT's systems as a measure of friendship…

Snorting slightly at the mental image of someone like Glory Girl or Lady Photon walking up to Armsmaster and asking if they could see the Inari Threat Report, Danny placed his mug on the table and stood, heading for the bookshelf for something to read while he waited on his daughter and her team.

* * *

Swarm paused mid-step, cocking her head slightly to the side and turning unerringly to the left, staring at a wall.

"Something up, Swarm?" Shadow asked lowly, projecting her voice with her audio illusion to the girl.

"Kid, about seventeen, in ABB colours." She murmured back. "I can't see him too well, but it looks like he's got a backpack of some kind. No idea what's in it, I'm not going to risk trying to get any bugs in there."

"Interesting…" Eon mused. "I wonder what he's doing around here."

"We could go and ask?" Shadow suggested, with a smirk. "I mean, I don't see why not."

"Lead the way, Swarm." The Ninetales waved, stepping back from his slot as team leader. Swarm moved to the front as a scout, keeping a number of her bugs following the ABB member while she led them towards him through the alleyways.

She purposely led them so that they would come across him as they encountered a split, where they would normally turn left and out. The ABB member was coming from the right, and the trio paused for a moment to restructure themselves back to normal before leaving, almost walking right into him.

"Hello, there." Eon greeted, after giving him a moment to get over the shock of nearly running into the ' _Cape'_ trio. "Apologies for startling you, this area is usually rather quiet."

"I was looking for you, _Kyuubi_ Eon." The boy replied, looking nervous. "It's been noticed that this is the route your team comes into the city by, so I thought patrolling it would lead to finding you."

"Hm. If we're really getting that predictable, then maybe we need to start varying our routes some." He hummed. "It'd end up being a little too easy to trap if we keep using the same one, and I'd rather not be trapped by someone hostile." Looking up at the teen, Eon noticed him slowly moving towards his bag, and cocked his head a little. "What brought you looking for us?"

Picking up on the quiet almost-threat in his voice, the boy froze in the middle of sliding the backpack off, and looked around jerkily. "Lung-sama sent me, _Kyuubi_." He murmured. "One of the moles in the PRT managed to succeed in their mission, and he sent me to act as courier for it. I have the document in my bag, hid so it just looks like a lot of school work."

"Hand it over, then." The boy shot to grant his request, slinging the bag off his back and placing it on the floor to open it. He handed over a slim plastic folder, which Eon took in an Extrasensory and handed to Swarm, nodding. "Give Lung my greetings and gratitude."

"O- of course, _Kyuubi_." He bowed, swinging the bag back on and scurrying down the alley he'd come from.

They waited a few moments for him to leave earshot before speaking again.

"This is… interesting." Swarm said, having opened the folder to peek at the first page.

"We'll have a proper look at that later, we have a meeting to get to." Eon reminded her. "Put it into the Wonder Bag for now, it'll be out of the way and safe there, we'll do what we need to do today and have a look when we're back with your dad."

"Right, that makes sense."

"I wonder how much of it they got right." Shadow mused. "Probably not much of it, since they don't know anything about our origins or anything, so they don't really know how our powers work, but I'm curious to see what they _were_ able to get kinda right under their understanding of things."

"Probably more than you expect, pix." He replied, as the bug controller closed the bag. "From what I understand the PRT are rather good at inferencing from known data- which isn't surprising, given their job."

"I suppose so." The Vulpix sighed, stretching slightly on the spot while Swarm stood up. "C'mon, we should get going, I guess. Wouldn't be nice to keep them waiting."

"Sure. We also need to figure out some different ways into the city, if we're starting to get predictable. I don't want anyone getting hurt because someone decided to lay traps along here for us."

* * *

The entire group of Capes looked up at the knock on the door.

"I'll get it!" Vicky called, from where she was already hovering near the entrance to the front room. She was out into the corridor and opening it almost immediately after, before anyone else could respond, making Mark and Amy sigh and shake their heads. "Hi, you three!"

"Hello, Vicky." Eon's low voice replied from the front of the house. "I hope you're doing well?"

"Pretty good, yeah." The door shut slightly heavily and the blonde floated in, leading the three members of Team Inari behind her.

Crystal, currently back from college due to her aunt's death during Leviathan, poked her head out of the kitchen. "Hello, Inari. Nice to meet you all, I'm Crystal, aka Laserdream. Want coffee?" The trio traded glances, Eon's gaze staying on Shadow for a few moments, then nodded.

"Coffee would be nice, thank you." Eon replied. The Cape vanished from the doorway, and two of Inari took their places; Swarm on a chair set up for her, and Eon to her right, slightly forward.

Shadow, on the other hand, completely ignored that, heading directly for Amy, who slipped down from her chair and smiled. "Hi, Amy. How're you doing?"

"I'm fine, Shadow." The healer showed no hesitation in running her hand over the crest on her head, Sarah noticed with interest, as she replied. "I guess you all are doing good as well?"

"Yeah, we're fine." She grinned back, pushing up slightly into Amy's hand. "I'm glad you're ok, though." She stayed there for a moment, then headed over to Eon's right side, sitting a little back from him. Sarah observed their dynamic with curiosity, then Crystal came in, balancing a large tray on her hands which she set down on the table.

Everyone busied themselves with arranging their drinks, Eon telekinetically moving things around to do so, while Shadow looked up at Swarm.

"Check that, Amy?" She requested, drawing everyone's attention. Most of the room immediately blinked and looked away from the eye-twisting static-like effect that had been placed over the lower part of Swarm's mask.

"That works fine, Shadow." Amy told her. Shadow nodded gratefully at her, while Swarm reached out and took a sip of her coffee.

"Oh, that's cool." Crystal commented, peering at it. "To stop people from being able to see your face, right?"

"That's right." Swarm confirmed, a little bit of buzz in her voice as she put the mug down. "It's not as effective as a mask is, because Shadow needs to concentrate on holding it up, but for eating or drinking in costume it works perfectly fine."

"It's a variation of the illusion I use to cloak." Shadow added. "I use a different one to Eon, because I have less power for that sort of stuff- well, most of it's the same, but the base is different. I just adjusted it so that it looks more like the static you get on a TV, then added a wrap around to it."

"It's a good use of the illusion set, and it's probably something we should experiment more with." Their leader finished. "There's probably quite a few uses for it outside of conventional security stuff, for instance."

"It does sound like something useful." Eric put in, from where he was half-lying on a couch. Crystal poked him in the side, making him shift so she could sit down, and Sarah leaned forward.

"Quite."

Inari all subtly shifted as well, apparently recognising the beginning of the meeting.

"Now, I know Shadow's been introduced to all of us before, but Swarm and yourself haven't. I'm Sarah Pelham, that's my husband Neil, that's Eric and Crystal, our children, that's Mark, and you've met Vicky and Amy."

"A pleasure to meet all of you." Eon half-bowed from his seat, while Swarm gave the impression of smiling gently as she waved slightly. "I'm a little surprised all of you decided to meet with us, though."

"It's mainly not wanting to leave the kids alone, plus Amy's going to be there with you anyway, so I thought it would be a good idea for all four of you to hear it together so nothing gets missed." Sarah admitted. "But anyone can come up with good ideas, and it's surprisingly common that the kids end up spotting something we missed, so including them can be helpful."

"Which certainly makes sense." Eon's tails curled around him in a wide arc, while he watched attentively over the table.

"So, your appointment's on Tuesday, at three in the afternoon. I'd recommend showing up a little earlier than that, maybe by five minutes, but you can always choose to stay in the area for much longer and only actually go in when your appointment is about to start." She began. "You and Amy can make the decision on whether or not you arrive together-"

"We probably should, just to give a little more credibility to the meeting." Amy cut in. "Shadow's already well known as a healer, and us saying it's power testing doesn't necessarily mean that it's _Inari's_ power testing, just that it's a test that might need healers so they've called us in as backup. Eon and Swarm would obviously just be there as Shadow's escort to the building in that case, like Vicky tends to do with me."

"-And you can decide who it is who speaks to the receptionist about the appointment as well." Sarah sighed.

Eon, Shadow and Amy swapped looks.

"It might be best if you do it, because people in the city know you better than they know us, so they'd be less confused by you talking to them."

"But it's your appointment, officially, so it's probably under your name." She countered. "So Team Inari would need to ask, while I'd just have to put in that I'm with you for your power testing."

"I suppose I'm doing it, then." Eon rolled his eyes, lifting his coffee towards him. "If only because I'm Inari's team leader, so in many ways that's my _job_."

"Thanks, Eon!" Shadow replied cheerily. She took a sip of her own coffee, the mug doing nothing to help hide the smirk, and added, "That's nice of you to do. I was expecting that _I'd_ have to do it, because it's my power testing."

Sarah watched with interest as Eon mimed hammering his head off a wall, created with his illusions, while Inari laughed. Amy and Vicky joined in, which was curious, but not _too_ much so- they'd clearly made friends in the aftermath of Leviathan, which was nice. She could hear Eric and Crystal chuckling quietly from the couch beside her, as if they were uncertain as to whether it would offend them, and even Mark had a tiny smile on his face.

She cleared her throat, making the five rearrange themselves into something vaguely resembling seriousness, Shadow and Eon placing their coffee down as they did. "Right. Well then. Your appointment is technically with Miss Militia, but don't be surprised if Armsmaster shows up as well. He has a tendency to like showing up to power testing, probably out of curiosity. There's also probably going to be a few people monitoring over video call, just because that way they have people out of range if something happens. It's standard protocol with Masters of any sort, even when they're heroes and from the Protectorate, when working with unknowns."

"I'm not gonna start any trouble!" Shadow protested.

"I'm sure you wouldn't, but it's standard, since things can go wrong." Sarah shrugged, referring back to the information on her cell phone that Miss Militia had sent through for her to use to brief Inari.

Apparently someone in the PRT _really_ wanted to keep Team Inari on their good side, for whatever reason.

"Yeah, it's not meant to be anything against you, Shadow, the PRT's just supposed to expect the worst." Amy put in, leaning over to run her hand over her head again. "Everyone's going to be fairly sure that you won't do anything, but they need to make sure to think of how they'd deal with it if you did, hence all the paranoia."

"Feels mean, though." Shadow pouted, looking down. "'Slike that stupid Bellossom back home, always complaining about fire just because she's a flower. Not like it can hurt anyone really, just sting a bit." The gathered New Wave members traded confused looks as Eon patted Shadow on the back sympathetically.

Swarm just sipped her coffee.

"Anyway, I'd recommend that you be polite to everyone there, because the PRT has the power to make your life _very_ difficult if you're causing trouble for them, but mostly just be cooperative." Sarah suggested. "Answer what they ask about your powers honestly, because that'll help them narrow down what might and might not work, and follow what they direct you to do."

"Though if you really want to keep something secret, I wouldn't recommend telling them anything about it." Neil put in, making his wife give him an exasperated look. "The PRT's not the most secure system in the world, so anything that goes in there can probably be pulled out by someone else with enough effort."

"Good to know." Swarm said.

Sarah gave _her_ a look as well, as best she could under the illusion. Despite the insect buzz in her voice, that had sounded suspiciously like a suppressed laugh.

"They'll probably poke and probe in the hopes of getting more information out of you while you're distracted dealing with the power testing, so don't be afraid to push back if you don't want to tell them something and they keep going." She finished. "But I would recommend cooperating with them, if only because they're often very good at extrapolating more about powers from what you give them."

"I see." Shadow nodded slowly, looking into the bottom of her coffee mug. She seemed very focused on it, and for a moment Sarah wondered what was so interesting about the remains of the drink before her tails curled up, shifting from the sides of her body back around. "Thank you for your help, Mrs Pelham. Amy, we'll meet you outside the PRT building on Tuesday, then. We've probably taken up enough of your time today." All three members of Team Inari drained their mugs and placed them back down, in a strangely synchronised move. "I'm sure you all have other business to handle today, and we've got some stuff to do as well, so we'll leave you be."

"Oh- of course." Sarah fumbled, staring. Luckily, Eric managed- somehow- to not be taken by surprise by the sudden exit, hopping up from the couch and offering his hand to Eon.

"Nice to meet you all, Inari." He grinned, as Eon placed his paw on his palm. "Glad you're working with my cousin. Hope it keeps up, you're all great."

"Thank you, Shielder." The silver _Kyuubi_ smiled slightly in return, and all three Inari members gave slight bows to her, Shadow's a little deeper than the other two. "I also hope we get the opportunity to continue working with Amy, and hopefully also with your team here as well."

"It'd be fun for sure." Eric agreed, as Vicky floated out of her chair and headed pre-emptively for the front door. "Maybe we'll end up together on a patrol sometime, that'd be nice."

"It would, yes." Shadow rushed over to Amy, giving her a slightly awkward hug, one her niece returned after a second of surprise, then the three headed towards the door.

"See you Tuesday, Amy!" The smaller kitsune called over her shoulder. There was the sound of quiet conversation at the front door of the Dallon house for a moment, and Inari left. Vicky came floating back in as they traded glances.

"I wonder where they were off to in a hurry?"Crystal mused, picking up and draining the rest of her mug. "Must've been important."

* * *

Nearly an hour later, the three of them had reached their main destination. Shadow was jittering around a little, an after effect of the mug of coffee and some sugar, but she was better off than she probably would've been- Eon had used the opportunity to define a small room and test out his own Heal Pulse on her. It hadn't been as effective at it might've been if Shadow had done it, and he'd been left fairly drained afterwards, but Shadow had reckoned it was passable and promised to keep up the practising.

Now, the team was looking at an obelisk near the edge of the city. It was purposely placed close to where Leviathan had first entered Brockton Bay, and hundreds of names were inscribed on it.

"According to rumours, most of the other ones are larger." Swarm said softly, the insect buzz in her voice muted. "This is probably one of the smallest in the world."

Eon felt sick. Shadow looked it.

Swarm walked around to Eon's side and opened the Wonder Bag, carefully lifting out the three bouquets of flowers. Swarm, vaguely familiar with some of the meanings behind a lot of flowers, had picked them out; marigolds, roses, and pink carnations, in various amounts. Keeping one for herself, she handed the other two to each of the Pokemon, then stepped forward to lay them down at the base of the monument, among the rest of the wreaths and bouquets from others.

Eon cleared his throat, shaking off the feeling of horror that came with knowing that this was considered a _small_ monument, and spoke gently, "In honour of your sacrifice to help save this city, and in memory of those civilians that did not manage to escape." Swarm knelt next to him, head bowed, while Shadow muttered something unintelligible he couldn't identify.

"I am sorry for your loss." Swarm added. "You Capes died facing a foe believed to be unbeatable; that takes strength. To the civilians, we failed to get you to safety in time, or hold off Leviathan for long enough that you could make it. Leviathan was thought unbeatable, though. No fault of your own, nor of ours, led to this."

Shadow stepped away from her team mates for a moment, bowing lowly. "May your spirits go swiftly forth to the Cave of Memories, beyond the Turnback Cave, on the boundary of the Distortion and True worlds. May Giratina guide you, and the Dusknoir protect you, until the time you step from Memories." She straightened, focusing for a moment, and four Will-o-Wisps burst into life. They were caught in a Psychic grip and lifted to the top of the monument, burning gently with a soft blue glow.

Swarm looked down at Eon, tilting her head. He shrugged; he had no idea what that was about either. The bug Cape nodded absently, walking around the memorial and examining the names.

"Looking for anyone in particular?" Eon asked softly.

"Not really." She admitted. "Just curious, I guess. I doubt I really know anyone, aside from maybe a few of the locals like Shadow Stalker, but I thought it might be good to just take a look and-" She paused, stiffening. The bugs around her started moving frantically, the slight background hum of buzzing that hung around her form becoming much more pronounced.

"Are you ok, Swarm?" Shadow asked, trotting over. "See something?"

"Sophia." She rumbled in return, still staring at the monument.

Eon looked up. There, between a few Capes he didn't recognise, was the name _Sophia Hess_ carved into the side of the large stone pillar.

For a moment, he couldn't figure out what it was about the name that was so important to her, before the long story of the bullying campaign at Winslow came back to him, and he grimaced.

"Ah." Shadow reached up, placing a paw awkwardly on her side.

"C'mon, Swarm, let's go home." The Vulpix said kindly. "We can talk more there, can't we?"

"Yeah." She nodded, exhaling heavily. The bugs around her went back to normal, though Eon could still tell that they were louder than normal from her emotions being pushed into them. "Yeah, Shadow. You're right. Let's get back." She promptly did an about-turn on her heel and strolled away, leaving the other two to hurry and catch up with her, heading for the Hebert household in the hopes that maybe Danny would be able to help out with this better than they could.

* * *

Danny glanced up as he heard the back door opening. Placing a marker in his book he put it to one side, standing and heading into the kitchen to meet his daughter and her team mates.

"Good afternoon, you three." He called out, as the smell of burgers reached him- clearly they'd decided to pick up take-out on the way back. "Did you meeting go ok?"

"Quite well, Danny, thank you." Eon replied, as he entered the room. "We got rather a bit of good advice out of it, as well as a bit more information about how the testing is being set up. Should be helpful."

"That's good." He smiled, looking down at the Ninetales for a moment before turning to Taylor, who had taken her mask off and was running her gloved hand through her hair.

Danny frowned. She seemed… a little off, somehow. More muted than she normally was when her team mates were around. "Are you ok, Taylor?"

"Not really." She admitted, sighing. Shadow and Eon placed the take-away bags on the table, heading over to her side as she collapsed into one of the chairs nearby. "Sophia's dead."

"Ah." Danny paused, sitting next to her. "What _exactly_ is the problem, Taylor?"

"I don't _know_!" She sighed heavily, holding her head in her hands. "It's just… I don't know how to feel about this. I mean, on one hand, it's Sophia, for god's sake. She's spent most the last two years of school making my life complete _hell_ , and now she's just… gone."

"Which, though I hesitate to suggest it, is somewhat of a good thing." Eon put in, from the chair he'd just jumped into.

"I mean, yes, because she's not a problem anymore, but also _no_ , because she's _dead_." Taylor groaned. "I mean, I might've wished they'd get into trouble or get hurt or something, but I never really wanted them _dead_."

There was a slight weakness in her voice that made him think she was lying, though he left that for now.

"You don't need to feel obligated to mourn her just because she died during Leviathan, Taylor." Danny said, after a moment of serious thought. "Like you said, she decided for whatever reason to make your life terrible. There's no reason for you to really mourn the fact that she's not around anymore. Maybe feel bad for her family, but you've got nothing personally to be sorry about." He paused. "Probably not the advice I _should_ be giving you, but I think it's right."

"So do I." Shadow admitted. "I mean, I never met Sophia personally, but I saw her a few times at that school. She was nothing but trouble for you, and while you shouldn't celebrate her being gone, you've got no obligation to mourn her if you don't want to."

"I suppose." Her voice still sounded hesitant, and Danny made a note to revisit that later on, when her team mates had left, and sat down next to them.

"So, anything else interesting pop up?" He asked instead, taking one of the bags and peering inside. This was apparently the trigger for the other three to remember the food and do the same, picking up the bags closest to them and beginning to work through them.

Over the course of the next ten minutes, they filled him in on the meeting with New Wave, the information they'd been given from it, and the situation surrounding that meeting.

"What _was_ with what you said, Shadow?" Taylor asked, coming back from her quiet musings.

"It's a family thing." She explained. "Or maybe it's a Ninetales thing, or a Talekeeper thing? I'm honestly not sure. It was in some of the stories I've learned, and Gram said something similar when we went to visit my aunt after her hatching failed. And it's been said basically word for word before on memory days about different Pokemon that sacrificed something. Thought it was appropriate."

"It sure sounded cool." Taylor smiled. "Your family have some cool traditions and stuff."

"They're definitely interesting." Eon agreed. "I've heard a few of the stories Shadow learned when she was littler before, her Mom and Grandmother have tons more apparently, and it can paint a very strange picture of our world even to those of us who live in it."

"I wouldn't mind hearing some of these stories, to be honest." Danny said. "What about that threat report of yours?"

"Oh, right, we need to look at that." Shadow realised, putting down her half-eaten burger. She went down into the Wonder Bag, coming out a moment later with a thin plastic folder, like the sort you might see school assignments in. Opening it they found three pages, which she laid out on the table, Danny and Taylor moving to read them.

A few minutes later, the burgers lay forgotten.

"I believe I understand now what Lady Photon meant about the PRT being good at extrapolating information." Eon hummed.

" _I_ feel like I should feel offended that they think I'm only good for a distraction." Taylor pouted. "Even if it is kinda true, there's still more than that that I'm good for."

"Yup." Shadow nodded, her head tilted slightly to the side. "Still, very interesting. I think I'll need to think harder about what I talk about during the power testing, aside from the healing stuff. If they've figured this much out from just what we've shown…"

"To be fair, you have shown rather a lot." Danny put in. "I've not seen you going out of your way to keep things secret, aside from the whole ' _other world creatures'_ thing. Even then, you still make references as if you were spirits or something- though that does play off of local belief quite well. But point is, you're not really trying to keep things secret when you're fighting-"

"I never saw the point. In a Dungeon, you go hard so that your team mates don't get hurt and to keep yourself from needing to be defended." Eon shrugged, lifting up a chip. "Admittedly it's rare that any of those fights ever escalate into actual serious injury, but rule of thumb is that you want to put the enemy down before they manage to do the same, just in case. We've been careful here, because obviously our enemies _don't_ get suddenly teleported out of the fight if they're too hurt, but we still try and end things quickly so no-one gets hurt."

"Which is good, many Capes don't bother to think about bystanders that might get hurt in their fights, or collateral damage. It's nice to see it. Even if you aren't Capes."

"Getting civilians hurt is pretty much the exact opposite of what a Rescue Team's supposed to do, after all." Shadow grinned, lifting her burger. "But yeah, Capes on this world don't seem to be very conscious of the impact of their battles."

"Which is a shame."

"Quite." Danny nodded at the three. "Anyway. We've got your threat report. What are you going to do with it?"

"Probably… very little." Eon acknowledged. "Making ourselves seem like less of an opponent to the PRT would be good, of course, but there's not really much we can do with the information without revealing that we _have_ the information. Which of course would make them worry about how we got it."

"Fair enough. You could always make yourself seem like more trouble than you're worth, of course, but that can backfire."

"Which would be very bad, given that that might put Taylor in danger." Eon sighed. "I think just continuing as we are is probably the best option, but knowing how the PRT sees us is still a very good thing. We should try and keep them as our allies."

"I'd certainly agree to that." Taylor nodded. "They could cause a lot of trouble for us. Better to avoid that."

"How do you plan on dealing with Tuesday, then, Shadow?" He probed. It would be better to see if there was anything that might cause issues _before_ she went in, of course.

"Honestly, it'll mostly be following whatever the PRT people say." She said. "They're the ones who've set all this up, so they probably know what's best to do. I'll just heal whoever they tell me to, maybe get Eon to define rooms for me if it makes it easier."

* * *

 **May 24th, 2011. Tuesday.**

Shadow stared up at the large building before her. For the first time since all this had been suggested, she could feel a twinge of nerves.

"Hey, Shadow!" A familiar voice called from above, making her look up. She returned Amy's wave as she dropped down next to them, her sister placing her gently on the ground.

"Hey Vicky, Amy." She grinned weakly, leaning a little into Eon's side for comfort.

"Ready to go?" The healer asked.

Shadow inhaled deeply, closing her eyes for a moment, then nodded, stepping up to stand next to Amy.

"Yeah." She glanced at the other two members of Inari and at Vicky, all of whom were smiling at her. "Yeah, I'm ready."

"Then let's go." Amy lead the way in, with Shadow close on her heels, and Swarm and Eon just behind that. Vicky didn't follow them, and a quick look behind showed her lifting off again in the direction of the coffee shop.

"Hi." Shadow greeted, with a wide and friendly smile. The receptionist stared at her, making the smile become slightly more amused. "I'm Shadow, from Team Inari. I'm here for a power testing with Panacea, as well as my team. I believe Miss Militia asked for me?"

* * *

 **AN: Things have occurred. They will continue occurring faster, don't worry. We're now into a bit where stuff's gonna start, so I hope you enjoyed the breather.**

 **Also, the flowers. According to the flower language thing I looked up online during writing, they mean, in order;** **grieving or celebration of people who've passed, specifically tea roses for eternal remembrance, and 'I will never forget you'.**


End file.
